Whether we like it or not, we need another referendum on abortion

‘I KNOW you don’t like being pregnant, but do you really feel bad enough to commit suicide?”

Picture it. The psychiatrist charged with signing off on an abortion because the mother says she is suicidal. This is one of the options which the expert group on abortion is reported to have given the Government if it legislates for the X case.

The idea that a psychiatrist could sit across from a pregnant woman and decide whether she should become a mother or not is an insult to our basic humanity. This is a process described as a “double lock” against abortion in the 1999 green paper on legislating for the X case.