A Sinn Féin bill to remove the three-day mandatory wait for access to abortion services has been passed in the Dáil this evening. The bill, which was supported by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris, was passed by 86 votes to 70 tonight. Government TDs had been granted a free vote or “vote of conscience” on the motion which seeks to amend the Termination of Pregnancies Act which was introduced following the referendum to Repeal the Eighth. The bill is now set to go
before an Oireachtas committee for further scrutiny. The legislation is “straightforward and targeted” according to Sinn Fein’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane. “It does just one thing. It proposes to remove the mandatory three-day wait for access to an abortion during early pregnancy,” he said. It does so by deleting section 12(3) and by amending section 12(4) of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act which was introduced after the country voted in a referendum in 2018 to repeat the eighth amendment to the Constitution which
banned abortion. Introducing the Bill, Mr Cullinane said it “does not require an abortion to happen on the day of a first consultation but when a woman is certain that this is what she wants, it allows her to make that decision for herself in her own time about her own pregnancy without a mandatory delay.” Among the Fianna Fail TDs opposing the Bill, the Minister for Children, Norma Foley, said was a “very sensitive and very personal decision” for all members of the Oireachtas.
Speaking in advance of the vote, she said: Personally, I won’t be voting to remove the three day wait. I believe when it was put to the people in 2018, that was part of what was put to the people. So I won’t be voting to support the removal of the three day wait.” The Galway West TD, John Connolly, who opposed the Bill said that Connolly said: “I did not think the three day wait is a bad measure, I think it is such
a significant decision for anyone to make, it may be when someone visits the GP they are fully informed of how the procedures worked there might be some information that they may want to consider further.”
Sinn Féin, Dáil, three-day wait, abortion services, Termination of Pregnancies Act, Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, vote of conscience, Micheál Martin, Simon Harris, David Cullinane, Norma Foley, John Connolly