A SINN FÉIN bill to abolish the mandatory three-day waiting period to access abortion care in Ireland will be debated in the Dáil tonight.
It comes after a similar bill from the Social Democrats was defeated in the Dáil last month.
Sinn Féin did not support the Social Democrats’ bill, which included a further provision around widening access to abortions in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.
Current laws only allow terminations where a condition is likely to lead to the death of the foetus before birth or within 28 days after birth.
Speaking to reporters this morning at Leinster House, Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane, said his party did not support the Social Democrats’ bill because it had concerns around the proposed definition relating to fatal foetal abnormalities and provisions around decriminalisation for doctors.
Cullinane said his party has long held a view that a three-day wait was a barrier to women accessing abortion services.
“I’ve listened very carefully to the voices of women who’ve told their stories of being timed out of accessing services because you couldn’t get a GP. There are women in coercive relationships, for example, [who] find it very difficult to get a second appointment, and for all of those reasons, some women were not able to access abortion services,” the Waterford TD said.
He stressed, however, that women should still be entitled to a follow-up appointment if they want one.
“The clear distinction that’s been made here is that the mandatory element of that three-day wait should be brought to an end, because we’re talking here about women who have come at this at their own time, they’ve made up their minds, they know what they want,” he said, adding that some women find the three-day wait “patronising”.
During the debate of the Social Democrats’ bill last month, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she personally does not oppose removing the three-day wait.
“I personally do not see any difficulty with the requirement. That is my personal position,” she said at the time.