A Bill put forward to abolish the three-day waiting period and decriminalise abortion has been defeated in the Dáil.
The Social Democrats’ abortion (Reproductive Rights Amendment) Bill was defeated by 85 votes to 30 in a vote on Wednesday night. There were 36 abstentions.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill earlier told the Dáil that she could agree, legally or operationally, support the Bill.
“What is proposed is blanket decriminalisation,” Carroll MacNeill told the architect of the Bill, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.
In tense scenes prior to the vote, the Fine Gael Minister for Health added: “There’s no point in shaking your head at me,” saying that Cairns had adopted the “most expansive definition” of decriminalisation possible.
Following the result, Aontú Senator for Cavan Sarah O’Reilly said: “Today is a good day for the baby in the womb,” describing the defeated Bill as “extreme.”
Carroll MacNeill told Ms Cairns that there were both legal and operational issues with the controversial Bill, on which TDs are to be given a free vote. TDs were given a free vote on the legislation which included a measure to scrap the 12-week gestational limit for abortion in cases where the unborn child has a life-limiting condition.
Carroll MacNeill also raised issues with the proposal to remove criminal sanctions for doctors, who had not acted in good faith.
Advocates have described the waiting period as a critical safeguard, with the Oireachtas hearing today 10,426 women from 2019 to 2024 had not returned for an abortion within the three-day decision period following an initial consultation.
Carroll MacNeill said that the Bill makes five major changes to the existing abortion legislation, and in four out of five cases, she sees policy difficulties, while all have legal difficulties.
THREE DAY WAIT
She said that the least problematic change in her view was amendments on the three-day waiting period. She said arguments for and against the removal of the three-day wait had been “well aired and aired in the public domain.”
She said that the second point in question was the reduction in the number of doctors needed to sign off on an abortion. The Minister told Cairns that there were “really practical and clinical reasons” why two doctors would be needed for input.
“Now, there are really practical and clinical reasons why the input of more than one clinician is relevant in the decision making doctors work as a team, and so where, for example, a woman’s life or health is at risk because of psychiatric illness or cardiology issue or a neurology issue.
“Of necessity, you’re going to need both the cardiologist and the obstetrician involved. That is just the practical medical reality. And removing or changing that creates an uncertainty that I don’t believe is helpful, and courts will interpret that later, and that is meaningful, and I don’t have time to go into exactly how meaningful it is, but, again, then in Section 11, we would change the number of doctors involved in the decision about a fatal foetal abnormality, not requiring them both to examine it.
“It is a subtle nuance, and potentially to be dependent on notes, but again, the practical reality is that two doctors are necessary.”
‘THIS IS A SERIOUS DECISION’
“The practical, the dual professional signatory is a fundamental principle of safety. It’s widely practised in healthcare, and it’s a critical safety mechanism for high risk actions and serious decisions. And this is a serious decision. And I am very aware of the tragic outcomes.”
The Health Minister went on to tell Cairns that “unintended or tragic outcomes” had already occurred where core principles of safety “have not been adhered to in that way.”
“So, it is, so in that sense,” she said, “That is the difficulty with that, but also, legally, the Bill provides that both of those sets of decisions would be based on reasonable opinion formed in good faith, on knowledge available at the time.”
The Minister said that the third issue concerned the ministerial clinical guidelines in Section 9, 10, and 11 of the Soc Dems Bill.
“I don’t believe, in short, that it’s appropriate for me, as Minister or any Minister, to make clinical guidelines in any context. I think it’s an interference in the independence of the medical profession, and I think that you may sort of be assuming that every Minister is going to make guidelines that align to your view of the world.
“I can’t support that concept,” she added, “Because I don’t want to create a precedent where we interfere in the medical profession in any area of clinical practice, whether it’s obstetrics or whether it’s cardiology.”
‘WHY SHOULD [DOCTORS] BE EXEMPT FROM CRIMINAL SANCTION?
The fourth issue with the Bill, she told Cairns, would be the decriminalisation of medical practitioners, describing this as a “very substantial policy and legal change.”
She said it was the case presently in Ireland that a doctor’s decision does not have to be correct, however, the decision must have been made in good faith.
“That is the defence. But a question arises as to why a doctor who carries out a termination unreasonably or acts not in good faith –in bad faith – why should they be exempt from criminal sanction?
“What is proposed is a blanket decriminalisation, and it’s not confined to the woman’s treating doctor, but to any doctor. So, that is a very significant change, and that it’s not just a drafting issue that could be fixed.”
Carroll MacNeill said that the most important issue related to the Bill was ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. Currently under Ireland’s abortion law, an abortion is permitted if two medical practitioners certify that a life-limiting condition is likely to cause the child’s death in utero or within 28 days of birth. However, the Bill wants to extend this time-frame.
“I don’t want to cause any upset for anybody, but the reason [the law states] 28 days is where there’s going to be a condition that results in the death of an infant, it’s nearly always certainly in the first 28 days.
“It’s known as the neonatal period, that first four weeks. Of the approximately 190 infant deaths that occurred last year, about 150 of them were within that period. So it’s not a figure that’s chosen at random. It is chosen because it’s related medically to the period where an infant is most at risk. Beyond that, it’s extremely complicated.”
Carroll MacNeill said that the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and others have argued that the period “should be up to a year.”
“But if a baby can live for two months, three months, four months, I don’t understand how you put a timeline on it, or how you pick a timeline, and to ask you to pick the number of days that are appropriate beyond 28 days, because I personally find it impossible,” she told Cairns, who appeared to shake her head.
“Instead, you have created the idea of a fatal condition that the foetus might have. That is the most expansive position that anybody has ever taken, not just in this House so far, but it impacts any condition that an infant might have – that a child – might have. It goes way beyond the neonatal period, a fatal condition in the foetus, is also one that a child would have, and there are a whole range of conditions [that see people] who are living until [age] seven, eight, nine, ten, twenty. These are fatal conditions.
“There’s no point shaking your head at me,” she told the Social Democrats leader. “This is the reality. This is true.”
‘TINY HEARTS THAT BEAT’
The debate heard from a broad range of TDs ahead of this evening’s vote. Labour TD Marie Sherlock claimed that women seeking abortions in Ireland had already “thought long and hard” about their decision and do not benefit from the three day wait – whilst pro-life TDs pointed out that over 10,000 women did not return after the initial consultation.
Deputy Ken O’Flynn of Independent Ireland said thousands of “human lives” have been sacrificed since the introduction of abortion to Ireland.
“Tiny hearts that beat, tiny hands and tiny faces,” he said. O’Flynn said that the House was not debating an administrative change, not debating paperwork, but debating “whether the State should remove one of the last remaining safeguards before deliberation of ending an unborn, human life.”
His party colleague Richard O’Donogue said that 10,426 women from 2019 to 2024 had not returned within the three-day decision period following their first abortion appointment, and that this had resulted in children being born.
“Give them their three days,” he said of expectant mothers. “I am there to support them, regardless of the decision they make.”
Peadar Tóibín urged TDs to “listen to the people,” and keep the three-day wait, describing it as “one of the last protections for right to life there is in Ireland.”
“It would be a mistake to delete the reflection time for what may be the biggest decision of a woman’s life,” said the Meath TD. “It is an irreversible decision. It is compassionate to provide a period of time to allow women to reflect on whether to proceed to an abortion or not. In many other countries, this reflection time exists.
“We know that the three-day wait is working. There are thousands of children alive today as a result of it. Eight years ago, we were told to accept the democratic will of the people. Now these parties seek to disregard the will of the people.”