Ireland votes to abolish three-day abortion waiting period that saved thousands of lives

(LifeSiteNews) — Ireland’s Parliament voted Wednesday to abolish a mandatory three-day abortion waiting period that has helped to save many babies’ lives.

The legislation would nix the current requirement that women wait three days before an initial visit to the doctor, who ordinarily must certify that the woman is not past 12 weeks’ pregnancy, and the abortion of her baby. Abortions in later stages of pregnancy are permitted in exceptional circumstances when it is deemed that there is an “immediate risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman.”

Figures show that between 2019 and 2024, about 10,400 women did not return for a second abortion consultation, including women who had a miscarriage or a hospital appointment, but indicating that many babies were saved as a result of the waiting period. 

While Parliament voted to strike down the waiting period 86 votes to 70, most deputies from both parties voted against the measure, according to The Guardian. The scale was tipped by votes in favor of the measure by a “handful of cabinet ministers, including the taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin, and the tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Simon Harris.”

Just weeks ago, a similar bill from the Social Democrats seeking to abolish the abortion waiting period failed to pass by an 85-30 vote, with 36 abstentions, Crux Now reported.

Peadar Tóibín, leader of conservative political party Aontú, decried the vote, saying it has taken away the “last protection for unborn children.”

“The battle for compassion and humanity is not over. It still has to get through the remaining stages of the Dáil and Seanad,” he added.

Tóibín said during a debate on Tuesday that there were 10,852 abortions in Ireland last year, “the highest figure on record.”

“It is equivalent to 400 classrooms of children who are no longer with us as a result of that abortion law. It is absolutely heartbreaking,” he said.

The doors to abortion in Ireland were opened in 2018 when a referendum voted 66.4% to 33.6% to repeal the Eighth Amendment, a 1983 constitutional amendment that guaranteed the right to life for the unborn, thereby outlawing abortion unless the pregnancy threatened the life of the mother.

“In 2018, there were 2,879 abortions and since that law was deregulated the number has surged,” Tóibín continued. “It has tripled in just seven years and yet there is no effort by the political establishment to understand why there is such a surge. There is no effort to ameliorate this awful human cost.”

In light of Wednesday’s vote to eradicate the abortion waiting period, Robert Troy, a junior minister of the centrist Fianna Fáil party, said some voters had supported abortion during the 2018 referendum assuming certain “protections and safeguards,” including the three-day waiting period. “It doesn’t do politics any justice to row back a short time later and try and change things.”

Peadar Tóibín, the leader of the Aontú party, said the public is not in favor of abolishing the waiting period. “Many people who voted for repeal are angry,” he said, according to The Guardian.