Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 20 Feb 2002

Vol. 549 No. 1

Written Answers. - Referendum on Abortion.

Gay Mitchell

Question:

95 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children whether the purpose of the abortion referendum is to stop Irish women, who are seeking abortions in Ireland on the grounds that they are suicidal, from so getting an Irish abortion. [5828/02]

I am not aware that there have been any cases, other than the X and the C cases, where the issue of abortion has arisen in Ireland in recent years.

The legislation envisaged under the referendum proposal is intended to remove any doubt there may be about the legality of treatment which doctors may consider necessary where some women, during pregnancy, are suffering from certain rare, life threatening medical conditions. It will provide certainty for doctors who may have feared that some interventions, although accepted medical practice in such situations, might nonetheless be unlawful. The proposal seeks to ensure the protection during pregnancy of the lives of women and the developing human life within a mother's womb.

The effect of the proposed Act will be that a threat of suicide will no longer be a ground for legal abortion in the State. The Government believes that the evidence considered in the preparation of the Green Paper on abortion and also the testimony and conclusions in the report of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, do not support the maintenance of suicide risk as a ground for abortion in Ireland and would not justify the enactment of a legal basis for abortion to avoid such a risk.

Top
Share