Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has told the Dáil that she is “not unreservedly pro-choice.” She was speaking during a debate which heard calls from People Before Profit to scrap the three-day wait, a safeguard within the 2018 Abortion Act.
Deputy Carroll MacNeill was responding to Paul Murphy TD, who asked her if she would legislate to end the three-day wait.
Mr Murphy was backed by People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger, who asked whether a three-day wait applied “when getting Viagra or rhinoplasty surgery.”
Carroll MacNeill told the TDs that the legislation in place is “consistent with commitments given to the Irish people prior to the repeal of the eighth amendment.”
The Health Minister also said that “citizens’ assemblies provide an important informative process but it is not a democratic process. The Citizens’ Assembly, comprising of 99 randomly selected citizens, recommended removing the eighth amendment in 2017.
“I do not know whether there is any other law that imposes a three-day wait on any medical treatment. I do not know whether it applies when getting Viagra or rhinoplasty surgery,” Coppinger said on Thursday.
“Forcing women to wait for a health treatment that is extremely time sensitive and very geographically difficult to access, where that wait is medically unnecessary, damaging and patronising and puts extra pressure on our health services, has to stop. Does the Minister agree with that?”
6,500 WOMEN DID NOT RETURN FOR ABORTION
Pro-life campaigners and politicians have argued for the retention of the three-day wait before abortion as a vital reflection period, and have previously pointed to data that shows that more than 6,500 women in the 2019-2022 period did not return for an abortion after the 3-day wait.
According to more recent figures, 10,779 women sought an initial abortion consultation in 2022. The Department of Health also reported that only 8,156 abortions occurred that year, suggesting up to 2,623 women did not follow through after the reflection period.
More than 100 doctors, including prominent obstetrician Dr. Trevor Hayes, have argued for keeping the 3-day wait, arguing that a brief reflection period is a common practice for many significant medical procedures.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said in response that all 19 maternity hospitals across Ireland now provide abortions, mentioning “a continuous increase in the number of community providers,” which she said now stands at 487. She said that the model of care, introduced during the Covid period, remained as the “enduring model of care.”
CARROLL MACNEILL: I VOTED FOR PBP’S ABORTION BILL
This saw the introduction of remote consultations for abortions up to a certain time limit. Since then, there has been a continuation of an upward trend, with 10,852 abortions taking place last year, compared to 6,666 in the first year after Repeal.
“The issue of legislative change, including changes to the three-day wait, requires very careful consideration. I respect the different views on these benches and on the benches opposite regarding the next steps to be taken,” the Health Minister said.
Carroll-MacNeill however noted that she voted in favour of People Before Profit’s attempt to restore a Bill to decriminalise abortion without time limit. The abortion Bill, which had won support from TDs in 2023 but lapsed, would also have ended the three day wait. In December, TDs voted by a narrow margin of 73 to 71 to reject the Bill when Mr Murphy and Ms Coppinger tried to restore it.
“That is the reason I voted to enable Deputy Paul Murphy’s Bill to come back on the floor of the House. It is important to have a Chamber that enables freedom of speech and debate and that we have dialogue on this issue. Deputy Murphy’s legislation deals with a number of specific issues, some of which I might agree with and some with which I definitely would not agree. It is important to have a very broad debate,” said Carroll MacNeill.
COPPINGER CRITICAL OF ‘VERY RIGHT-WING TDS IN GOVT’
She added that while she respected the work done in the review, there was “no consensus” in relation to the next steps that may be taken with regard to abortion law.
Coppinger claimed that remote abortion has been “shown to be exactly the same as visiting a doctor, and that was shown before the referendum as well.” She also claimed that the abortion Bill, described as “extreme” by campaigners, included “perfectly normal measures that the broad population agreed with.”
“The three-day wait requirement was put in the legislation to appease Simon Coveney and people like him,” claimed Coppinger. “That is the reality. I was here and I remember it.
“It was not indicated at the committee or anywhere else. The key point is that we now have very right-wing TDs in the Government who are anti-choice. The Minister should not be appeasing that bloc. The priority should be the health needs of women and pregnant people in this country.”
However, Carroll MacNeill told Coppinger: “The very essence of democratic choice is that those who are elected by the people may come into this House and freely choose how they wish to vote.
“I have every respect for Deputy Coppinger’s vote, just as I have every respect for the votes of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and of Deputies O’Shea, Ó Muirí, Kerrane and every single person in this House. I respect their vote, their perspective, how they represent their constituents and what they are doing here. That is the democratic process.
“Citizens’ assemblies provide an important informative process but it is not a democratic process,” she added. “We are entitled to make choices about what we debate.”