Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 14, line 23, to delete “out.” and substitute the following:

“out;

(e) the address at which the termination of pregnancy was carried out;

(f) the age, marital status, ethnicity, gravidity and parity (including the numbers of any previous pregnancies resulting in live births, stillbirths over 24 weeks, spontaneous miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and previous terminations of pregnancy) of the pregnant woman in respect of whom the termination of pregnancy was carried out;

(g) the length of the pregnancy at the date on which the termination of pregnancy was carried out;

(h) whether the pregnancy was singleton or multiple (specifying how many);

(i) the date and the method of foeticide, if used;

(j) the dates, methods and medical agents used to effect termination of pregnancy,

(k) where the termination of pregnancy was a selective termination, the original number of foetuses and the number to which they were reduced;

(l) where a termination of pregnancy has been carried out under section 11, the condition affecting the foetus and the method of and grounds for the diagnosis of that condition;

(m) whether a live birth followed the termination of pregnancy, and, if so, the care given to the baby and its outcome;

(n) if the death of the woman occurred as a result of the termination of pregnancy, the date and cause of death;

(o) such other information as may be prescribed.”.

This amendment is one that I regard as essential. It is an amendment to section 20 which concerns reporting and notification of information.Section 20, which provides for notifications, states that where a termination of pregnancy is carried out in accordance with the relevant sections, the medical practitioner has various requirements to keep records, in the prescribed form and manner, and to forward them to the Minister. The information specified in the section is limited to the Medical Council registration number, the section under which the termination of pregnancy was carried, the county of residence for some reason, and the date on which the termination of pregnancy was carried out.

The aim of the amendment is quite simple. It is designed to apply the same information gathering and reporting standards to the Irish abortion regime as those that apply in the UK. For decades, the UK has been portrayed as some kind of utopia for reproductive rights, so-called, yet now, when proposals are made to mirror key aspects of the UK system in terms of reporting requirements, supporters of the Bill have competed with each other to denounce the measure as being too restrictive, an insult to women and so forth. Last week, this was brought to a ludicrous new depth when Deputy Joan Burton attacked the proposed reporting requirements, stating that the kind of language used struck her as being from the school of the deep south of the United States.