The defeat of the proposal put forward by the Social Democrats to scrap the 3-day wait before abortion should now act as a catalyst for “positive action” from the government to “actually help women” and “reduce the spiralling abortion rate”, pro-life activists have said.
The Social Democrats private members bill, which also sought to decriminalise abortion and expand the grounds on which it is made available in Ireland, was defeated in the Dáil on Wednesday by 85 votes to 30, with 36 abstentions, including all Sinn Féin TDs.
Sinn Féin, however, expressed support for scrapping the 3-day wait and have proposed their own bill to further liberalise abortion laws in Ireland. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs also said they wanted to remove the period of reflection.
Megan Ní Scealláin of Life Institute, who have campaigned extensively to retain the 3-day period of reflection, said that the defeat of the bill happened despite “almost-blanket” media support, and that the government should now “show leadership and compassion” in tackling the increasing abortion rate and seizing the chance to assist women with unexpected pregnancies.
“Despite the almost-blanket support from the media for the SocDems abortion bill, it was roundly defeated – and this should act as a catalyst for the government for positive action to help women and save lives,” said Ms Scealláin. “The government should now show leadership and compassion and seize the chance to actually help women instead of listening to those who always see abortion as the first answer, and who have failed to provide positive solutions for both mother and baby.”
“They must act to reduce the spiralling abortion rate which is horrifying,” she said, ” The 3-day wait is essential for women, who should not be rushed into momentous decisions where they are all too-often made to feel they have no choice.”
“It is extraordinary that so many TDs are wilfully blind to the fact that we are aborting our future, and that almost 11,000 abortions a year should give us all pause. The loss of life is shocking, but we never hear a word of compassion for the baby, and mostly false or misguided compassion for women,” she said.
“The truth is that it is easier for society to pretend that they are being progressive by giving women ‘choice’ when all-too-often that simply means failing to provide real support – and then there is a cohort who believe that abortion gets rid of the ‘problem’ of less-than-perfect children,” she added.
“Sinn Féin now also have the 3-day wait in their sights, so the media needs to have a long, hard look at its dishonesty and bias regarding reporting around this issue, and our TDS need to ask themselves if they really want to be part of increasing the already horrific abortion rate,” she said.
“The 3-day wait before making such a huge decision is clearly a major factor in giving a number of women time to think, and preventing our abortion rate from being even worse than it already is,” the Life Institute spokeswoman said.
“We know over 10,000 women did not return for an abortion after the 3-day period of reflection in the period from 2019 and 2024,” she said. “Why would we want a possible 10,000 additional abortions?”
“Information released to TD Carol Nolan stated that between 2019 and 2024, 10,426 women did not return for a second appointment after the 3 day waiting period. This is approximately 18% of women who initially sought an abortion in Ireland during this timeframe. This is not an insignificant figure, and it needs to be addressed by those TDs pushing for the law to be changed again – instead of being ignored or denied,” she said.
“Ultimately,” Ms Ní Scealláin stated, referencing TD Carol Nolan’s key-point during the debate, “the Irish people did not give our elected representatives in government “a blank cheque to go on eliminating all protections for unborn children, until no such protections exist at all”. This was not the premise under which the 8th was repealed, and comments by Labour’s Conor Sheehan during the debate, claiming that “the 8th amendment was never meant to be a ceiling… it has not gone far enough” are abhorrent, and showcase the real and sinister intentions of the politicians pushing for abortion in this country – ‘abortion on demand, no questions asked’.
Offaly TD Carol Nolan said that “it was evident from very early on during the debate that a sense of shock had descended on the Soc Dem benches in the Dáil chamber. They expected a rapturous embrace of their extreme ideology. What they got was a level of push back that was as unexpected as it was welcome.”
Government TDs had a free vote on the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill as a matter of conscience.
While a majority of TDs in the chamber rejected the legislation, Fine Gael TDs Grace Boland and Barry Ward voted in favour of moving the Bill to committee stage, as did Fianna Fáil TD Catherine Ardagh.
Fianna Fáil’s Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless, Minister of State Chris O’Sullivan and TD Paul McAuliffe abstained.
The Labour Party, People Before Profit, the Green Party and Independent TD Barry Heneghan supported the legislation
Sinn Féin, however, indicated that they would be supporting removing the 3-day wait, saying they never supported the provision in the first place.