“Cowardly politicians offer problems but no solutions to abortion seekers, says Abortion Rights Campaign”

Yesterday the majority of our elected officials chose to stand for nothing, rather than bring much needed changes to our abortion legislation. Lauran Kilmartin, spokesperson for ARC asks “Why, 8 years after Repeal, is the government still refusing to act on its own review of abortion legislation?” 

“We believe that the Minister for Health, the government, and Sinn Féin are hiding behind technicalities on the wording of the bill to obfuscate that they are afraid to move on this issue. Instead of bringing this to committee stage, where issues of wording could be hammered out, they voted down the bill. There is only one word for this: cowardly.” 

Kilmartin continues, “It is regrettable that the health minister empathises with the issues raised during the debate, but does not say what can be done to fix them.”

Yesterday’s debate paternalistically framed the “necessity” of criminalisation of medical professionals to protect pregnant people from abusers. Being forced to attend multiple appointments does not help abuse victims. Travelling across the country to access basic healthcare does not help abuse victims. Criminalising doctors does not help abuse victims. Weaponising abuse victims against abortion seekers is disgusting.

The Minister for Health walking out during the debate shows the government’s contempt for people who have received complex foetal diagnoses, who are still forced to travel. The Minister spoke of people needing time to reflect on their options, as with any medical procedure. Abortion is the only medical procedure where time constraints are dictated by criminal legislation, not medical necessity.

In 2023, the government commissioned a mandatory review into the abortion legislation, led by barrister Marie O’Shea. Over 7,000 public and expert submissions were made to this research. The report found significant barriers to care and made numerous recommendations. That report has been continually ignored by the government and undermined in the debate. It is wholly disrespectful to invite people to share details of deeply personal experiences and then ignore the findings. We are tired of having to tell tragic stories to make change in this country. 

We continue to be disappointed in Sinn Féin’s inability to hold a consistent position on abortion.

In 2023 on the 5th anniversary of Repeal, Bríd Smith proposed a bill to enact the recommendations of Ms. O’Shea’s report. This bill proposed more extensive changes than the Social Democrats bill, yet Sinn Féin voted to move it to committee stage. The party did not have broad sweeping “issues” with decriminalisation or amending foetal anomaly definitions, as they knew that specifics could be debated at committee stage.

David Cullinane TD, who spoke against the Social Democrats Bill yesterday, himself called for decriminalisation and the amending foetal anomaly definitions in 2021, as the health spokesperson for Sinn Féin.

After Deputy Smith’s bill lapsed with the previous Dáil, Paul Murphy proposed it for reintroduction in December; again Sinn Féin supported it. Why are they now unable to support improvements to abortion legislation?

For over a decade ARC has called for the government to create policies and systems to support reproductive justice, including for those who want to have children. We know that families need carer supports, affordable childcare, disability rights, decent living standards, well-paid employment, meaningful social welfare and most of all secure housing. The government has not acted on any of that. Instead they prop up flawed legislation whose obstacles are detailed extensively in their own review.

The Abortion Support Network, who still exist to help abortion seekers who are failed by our government, have said that 10% of the people they now help were pushed over the 12 week time limit by the 3 day waiting period. We also know that others have been pushed past this deadline by the failure of the abortion pill to work. 

Any politician who believes that abortion is healthcare should work urgently and constructively to reduce obstacles to this healthcare by implementing the recommendations of the O’Shea report.

Free, safe, legal and local abortion access for anyone who wants or needs one in Ireland is what we call for. This legislation was a step in that direction. And we have been let down again.