Irish lawmakers voted down a bill Tuesday, May 12, intended to remove remaining barriers to abortion access, in a proposal criticized by the leader of the national evangelical alliance as “cynical” and “dishonest.”
Members of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland’s parliament, voted against the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill during its second-stage reading in Dublin. The bill was defeated 85-30, with 36 abstentions.
Holly Cairns, leader of the Social Democrats, introduced the bill “to enact recommendations of the Marie O’Shea report into the operation of legislation on the termination of pregnancy, providing clarity on terminations for medical reasons, removal of the three-day waiting period, and ending the criminalisation of doctors.”
The Marie O’Shea review was conducted in 2023, when attorney Marie O’Shea led an independent assessment of abortion services following passage of the 2018 Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act.
The law currently allows terminations of unborn children up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, and later if there is a risk to the mother’s life or health, or if the child suffers from a fatal fetal anomaly.
O’Shea’s report concluded that while abortion services are generally functioning, significant “legal and operational barriers” prevent many women from accessing terminations.
One recommendation in the report sought to remove the three-day reflection period between confirmation of pregnancy and an abortion. The report argued that the waiting period caused unnecessary delays and distress, particularly for women nearing the 12-week limit.
The review also recommended removing a requirement for doctors to confirm that an unborn child would not live longer than 28 days after birth in cases involving fatal fetal abnormality.
The National Women’s Council on Monday published a statement welcoming a “renewed focus on barriers to abortion” ahead of the parliamentary vote.
The NWC, which describes itself as Ireland’s leading representative organization for women’s rights and equality, said existing barriers to “abortion services are paternalistic, medically unnecessary, and must be removed” in a public letter to lawmakers.
Nick Park, executive director of Evangelical Alliance Ireland, said the rights of all people, including women and unborn children, require protection.
“Evangelical Alliance Ireland is passionate about protecting people’s rights,” Park told Christian Daily International. “That includes the rights of women, of men, and the rights of children — including unborn children.”
Park said supporters of the 2018 referendum that removed Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion repeatedly emphasized that abortion access would be limited to certain conditions.
“One of those conditions was that anyone seeking an abortion would be subject to a three-day reflection period before proceeding,” he said.
“Those of us who warned that this would subsequently be followed by further widening the access to abortion were accused of scaremongering.”
Park said the promise that abortion would be “safe, legal and rare” in Ireland has already proven false. He said approximately 10,000 unborn children are aborted annually, roughly one in six pregnancies.
“Now there is a concerted attempt to remove the mandatory three-day reflection period,” Park said. “This latest push to remove all barriers to abortion is cynical, dishonest, and cloaks a denial of the fundamental right to life under the guise of ‘reproductive rights.’”
The bill’s defeat is unlikely to end efforts by some lawmakers to expand abortion access under the 2018 law.
In January, Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett of the socialist People Before Profit-Solidarity alliance proposed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill 2026, which would abolish the three-day waiting period for abortions under 12 weeks.
Sinn Féin has also introduced similar legislation. Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane reportedly said, “We never supported the three-day wait in the first place.”
