Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am concluding. A better day is coming, as I will say later, but it is not thanks to this Government that there is hope in the future for unborn children and their mothers who, as we know, often suffer after abortion.

This amendment is consequential to an amendment that sought to make the Minister carry through on his promise that disability would be specifically excluded. He will be fairly but critically judged in the future for not having been upfront on that issue because, unfortunately, disability is not excluded. In the same way, he will be critically judged for never engaging in honest debate about the consequences of such wide-ranging abortion, namely, opening us up, sadly, to the risk of abortion rates similar to those in Scotland which, with a similar population, has approximately 11,000 abortions a year.

The Minister attempts to portray opponents of this legislation as being somehow opposed to healthcare, but nothing could be further from the truth. In this amendment in particular, we want bona fide quality healthcare for women and their unborn children, as we have always wanted. Dressing up elective abortion as healthcare is a dishonest tactic. It is easy to see why it is employed. It is about making something that is deeply unjust look somehow respectable and good. It is the politics of absolute untruthfulness. It is a tragedy for everybody involved, including those who engage in that type of politics.