Legislative Reviews
Seanad Éireann — 2021-12-16
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Rónán Mullen (IND), National University of Ireland

"Thoroughly and officially”, but no mention of independence. In everything said by the Minister of State, there was not a single concession to the idea I referred to. It was all about consulting first with service providers and those who avail of the service. No mention was made of medical people who have a conscientious objection or of scientific and other experts who have concerns about the impact of this legislation in respect of rising numbers of abortions, issues around pain relief and questions concerning promoting positive alternatives to abortion. There was nothing of that nature.
All that is being hived off to just some general consultation with the public heading. That really shows the contempt that the Government has for the unborn child and for those who would defend his or her welfare, even within the context of an abortion regime. That is truly tragic. There was not a word there that acknowledged there is any expert concern about the impact of the abortion law on unborn children. That is an utterly tragic situation. A review should not just be about looking at whether the objectives of the Act have been met. It should, and always is in these cases, also be concerned with looking at whether any aspect of the Act is counterproductive. Therefore, I ask the Minister of State, personally, and others listening to make their views known to the Government, because clearly it is not interested in authentic independence on this issue.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-12-16