You’d never know if from media reports, but the case put forward by abortion supporters against the 3-day period of reflection has been comprehensively and forensically demolished during the Oireachtas Health Committee hearings.
As always occurs with such hearings and other kangaroo-court type assemblies used by the establishment to push its own view, most of the witnesses called before the Health Committee just happened, curiously enough, to be in favour of scrapping the 3-day wait. But their arguments came seriously undone under persistent and meticulous questioning.
After an entire round of hearings, those supporting the Sinn Féin proposal to scrap the 3-day wait utterly failed to stand up the fundamental thrust of their argument. They offered no evidence from the women who had not proceeded to undergo an abortion after the 3-day wait, because they hadn’t bothered talking to them. And they failed to validate the perception that they were representing the views of GPs on removing the 3-day wait because they didn’t bother asking them either.
While they claimed they could not possibly know why thousands of women did not return for an abortion after the 3-day time to think, it was evident that their own failure to research those reasons left an unbridgeable gap in their knowledge, and left claims that the 3-day wait was in someway harmful unsubstantiated and unsupported.
These failures are particularly significant because it is absolutely within the power of the government to research the reasons as to why the 10,000-plus women did not return for an abortion after the 3-day wait (and that’s just between 2019 and 2024). But they refused to do so – instead relying on the inept Abortion Review, with its inexplicable similar blind spot. And the Irish College of General Practitioners also uniquely had the opportunity and means to survey its members before sailing it to give evidence as a representative body. They came a cropper when asked repeatedly why they had chosen not to do so.
Other trite arguments were also blown out of the water: yes, other jurisdictions do have waiting periods before abortion, precisely because it deliberately ends the life of an unborn child. And no other procedure covered by the HSE ends a life – you don’t need 3 days to think about removing a tooth because there are no moral implications.
It was laid bare just how dangerous removing the wait period could be for women who are the victims of coercion, though some of the experts called to the hearings seemed not to have heard of cases before the courts involving appalling coercion against women. And while proponents of removing the 3-day time to think argued there was no clinical reason to retain it, it was also pointed out that there is equally no clinical reason to remove it.
What was ultimately revealed by the hearings was just how weak and unsubstantiated the arguments are for taking away the 3-day time to think – and how abortion advocates clearly simply continue to rely on the media to allow them to make unchallenged claims in order to change the law. Their case was in tatters after it was questioned robustly precisely because it is usually never challenged.
If you want to expand abortion law in Ireland there’s always a cosy seat for you at any media table, and a warm and sycophantic interview awaits at the national broadcaster. Pro-lifers in contrast are met with the equivalent of a rabid dog. It was ever thus in Ireland, as elsewhere, but at least now social media and platforms like Gript allow the full testimony at these hearings to be shared.
Yesterday, the Health Committee heard from two final witnesses, two GPs who support retaining the 3-day wait, Drs Kirsten Fuller and Andrew O’Regan who, like 90% of GPs in Ireland, do not provide abortions. Sources tell me that there was serious resistance to having any opposing voices to scrapping the period of reflection heard at all, such is the customary intolerance in lovely, shiny, modern tolerant Ireland. It might have explained some of the hostility shown to the GPs by some TDs who literally snarled and snapped at yesterday’s witnesses for their opposition to further liberalising the abortion law.
Dr Fuller said that “the latest HSE records show that between 2019 and 2024,over 10,000 women did not return after the three-day waiting period. That represents almost 18% of women. It’s clear from the data that thousands of children, from babies up to seven-year olds, are alive in Ireland today because of the three-day wait provision.”
“Since the abortion law took effect in 2019, there has been a massive increase in Irish abortions, with over 65,000 taking place to date,” she added. “1 in 6 pregnancies now end in abortion in Ireland based on the latest figures, despite the promises before abortion was legalised that it would be “rare”. Eliminating the three-day wait would undoubtedly lead to a further rise in these already massive numbers of abortions.”
“I know the substantive issue of abortion or abortion numbers is not part of the discussion here but when considering the three day wait and its possible removal, the impact this could have on the abortion rate is surely a relevant consideration in the deliberations of this committee. The central point, as I see it, is the finality of what abortion entails. A three day wait gives a woman a short but guaranteed space in which to consider her circumstances before proceeding and to ensure there is genuinely informed consent in a context where many women describe themselves as experiencing shock and uncertainty. Many doctors on both sides of the issue regarding abortion provision , agree on this fundamental fact.”
“Therefore I and many of my colleagues, regard this short time as a safeguard intended to ensure that such a significant decision has been given protected time for reflection,” she added.
Her fellow GP, Dr Andrew O’Regan, said that “while the subject of abortion splits opinions, this 3- day reflection period, can and does unite people with different views on abortion. I am aware of medical colleagues with opposing opinions on abortion, including those who are currently providing abortions who are very much in favour of retaining the 3-day wait.”
He added that “a pre-requisite for any procedure in a medical setting is prior informed consent. The doctor is obliged to discuss the full facts and implications of the procedure, and the patient must have enough time to consider and make an informed decision. Seventy-two hours of reflection prior to the unique and irreversible procedure of abortion is a moderate safeguard. There is no clinical reason to remove it but there are very important reasons to keep it.
“The HSE’s own statistics demonstrate that over 10,000 women who attended for a first appointment for abortion did not attend again. I am not suggesting that every one of these women changed their minds, but we know that a significant number of them did,” he added.
“The most powerful evidence for retaining the three-day wait is emerging from women who have come forward ready to share their personal stories and I truly hope that they will be given the opportunity to speak to you as well,” he said.
The Health Committee could have heard from women like Esme* who discovered she was pregnant at an extraordinarily difficult time in her life, and says “the option of abortion was suggested and encouraged”.
“The 3-day wait was my saving grace,” she says. “I was so traumatized and did not know what to do. Deep within I knew I had the resolve and strength to continue with the pregnancy”.
“I cannot imagine life without my baby. I believe that abolishing the three-day breathing space is unacceptable – and that any woman needs time to adjudicate, reflect and contemplate before making a decision that could be detrimental.”
The Health Committee won’t, of course, be inviting these women in to speak and to share their experiences – and aren’t interested in meeting the beautiful children who were saved by the 3-day wait. The TDs from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who gave Sinn Féin an unexpected political boost by supporting their life-threatening bill likely won’t change their minds. But everyone in Leinster House knows that at this Health Committee hearings the arguments for scraping the 3-day wait were heard and tried and found wanting.