Bill introduced to abolish 'deeply problematic' three-day abortion wait

Eva Osborne

A bill to abolish the three-day waiting period for abortion on request has been introduced in the Dáil.

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the legislation, which was introduced by People Before Profit, is not being opposed by the Government at the first stage.

As a result of the Repeal the Eight Referendum in 2018, termination of pregnancy up to 12 weeks on request was legalised.

The current legislation includes a mandatory 72-hour delay before a second appointment to access abortion.

Psychotherapist and sociology lecturer at TUS, Karen Sugrue, said the waiting period causes distress.

"This has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), by the United Nations, by our own Irish Family Planning Association as being deeply problematic," she said.

"As a psychotherapist, and as a person who works with young people all the time, I can say that it causes enormous distress."

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger said “termination of pregnancy is a health procedure that is extremely time sensitive”, according to The Irish Times.

Introducing the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) (Amendment) Bill, Ms Coppinger said the 72-hour clause “does not apply to any other medical procedure that we have in law”.

“You can buy Viagra over the counter ... You can have rhinoplasty. There is no mandatory wait. The regret rate for rhinoplasty is 40 per cent.”

The Dublin West TD said “it is based on the idea that women are rash, emotional, cannot make decisions for themselves and have not fully thought things through and that by putting in this place this barrier they will suddenly decide not to go ahead with a termination".