Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What is the Minister's purpose in changing the language from previously specifying that healthcare professionals would intervene to protect or save the life of the unborn, to moving towards changing the language so that healthcare providers would intervene to protect the pregnancy? Are we trying to determine that the word "pregnancy" actually relates to the life of the baby in the womb of the women? A pregnancy is an event, and a long period of growing and lots of other warm, fuzzy stuff women talk about, but it is distinctly different to the life of the baby in the womb. A pregnancy is a term of nine months, or however many weeks it takes for a baby to grow from something as tiny as the head of a pin to what comes out when one's labour has finished. It is distinctly different to the unborn, which goes through completely different phases during that pregnancy. I am not sure if that is what we are saying, when we take out the word "unborn". I completely hear what people are saying about it being a loaded term but it is still a baby. It is not a pregnancy, which is an event that happens over many months. It is not a baby. Is that what we are saying by changing the terminology?