On Tuesday, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit proposed a motion to restore the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill 2023 to the current Dáil. The Bill, that had been sponsored by Bríd Smith in the last Dáil, proposed to decriminalise the provision of abortion services; to provide for abortion on request prior to foetal viability; to abolish the 3 day waiting period for abortion on request; to allow for abortion on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before or within a year of birth; and to allow for abortion where there is a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman.
Restorations of Bills from the previous Dáil are routine and are rarely if ever challenged. However, Peadar Toibin of Aontú opposed the motion to restore the Bill and called a vote. The vote took place in the Dáil last night and the motion to restore the Bill was defeated by 73 to 71.
Deputy Paul Murphy said “The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill 2023 was passed at Second Stage in the last Dáil by a margin of 67 to 64. On Tuesday, I proposed a motion to restore the Bill to the new Dáil, a routine practice that occurs in every Dáil and is rarely if ever opposed. However, last night the Dáil voted against restoring the Bill by 73 to 71.
“Yesterday, in the run up to and during the votes in the Dáil, Peadar Toibín engaged in disgraceful scaremongering about ‘abortion up until birth’. The reality is that the Bill sought to provide for access to abortion care in situations where a fatal foetal anomaly will lead to the death of a foetus either before birth or within a year of birth. The current legislation which requires doctors to agree that a foetus with a fatal anomaly will definitely die within 28 days of birth, and not 29, is unworkable and has forced hundreds of pregnant women to travel to England in distress since the law was introduced. The statutory review of the current legislation recommended revisiting that provision of the law. The bill would also have provided for access to abortion where there is a risk to the life or the health of a woman and extended the right to choose beyond 12 weeks until (i.e. prior to) foetal viability - not “until birth”. Peadar Toibín’s scaremongering was not unexpected, it is central to Aontú’s anti-women politics, but it is shameful nonetheless.
“It is indicative of the rightward move of the political establishment that the motion to restore the Bill was defeated last night. We are seeing this shift to increasingly right wing politics on a range of issues such as militarisation, immigration, the environment and now women’s rights”.
Former People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said “I am disgusted to see my Bill that was passed by the last Dáil has now been blocked from being restored to the new Dáil.
“Last year, seven years after Repeal, at least 240 women travelled to Britain for abortion services. Last night’s vote means that forced exodus will continue for the foreseeable future.
“My Bill proposed to decriminalise the provision of abortion and to abolish the patronising 3 day waiting period for abortion on request. The Bill would have legalised abortion on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality and it would have provided for abortion where there is a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman.
“The passing of the Bill in the last Dáil was important progress for women’s rights but that has now been undone. This demonstrates again that the women’s rights that we have were hard won by pressure from below and cannot be taken for granted. The political establishment will roll back those rights if they think they can.
“But they will not be allowed to get away with it. The campaign for abortion rights will continue and People Before Profit will work with campaigners and seek new opportunities in the Dáil to provide full abortion rights for women in this State. We will settle for nothing less”.