{"id":447492,"date":"2026-05-13T22:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/447492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:57:11","slug":"bill-to-remove-abortion-waiting-period-defeated-in-dail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/447492\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to remove abortion waiting period defeated in D\u00e1il"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An abortion Bill proposed by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has been defeated by TDs.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill would remove a three-day waiting period and stop the need for some women to travel abroad after receiving a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality.<\/p>\n<p>Cairns said it would also provide \u201cmore certainty around abortion in cases where a woman\u2019s health or life is at risk; clarifies the law when it comes to conscientious objection and removes the criminalisation of medics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed legislation comes almost eight years after Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour to amend the constitution and reform the strict abortion laws.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bill-to-remove-abortion-waiting-period-defeated-in-dail.jpg\" alt=\"Micheal Martin \" data-title=\"North South Ministerial Council\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Brian Lawless\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Miche\u00e1l Martin highlighted \u2018significant flaws\u2019 (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the Bill on Wednesday, shortly before it was debated in the D\u00e1il, Miche\u00e1l Martin said: \u201cSome significant flaws have been highlighted in relation to the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the issue of decriminalisation is \u201chighly problematic\u201d and undermines \u201cthe entire legislative template that was enacted post the referendum\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Taoiseach said the Minister for Health has had \u201cgood engagement\u201d with the Social Democrats, but that a private member\u2019s bill \u201cisn\u2019t the most effective way of dealing with a complex issue like this\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Martin said there is not \u201ca collective party position or Government position\u201d in relation to the Bill.<\/p>\n<p>He said Government TDs will not be directed by whips on how to vote as it is a conscience issue.<\/p>\n<p>The bill was denied a second reading on Wednesday evening, with 85 TDs voting against, 30 in favour and 36 abstaining.<\/p>\n<p>Aont\u00fa party leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn posted on social media following the vote: \u201cThe lives of thousands of children will be saved as a result of this Bill being defeated today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday Cairns issued a statement reacting to reports that the Department of Health had said there were difficulties with some of the provisions in her legislation.<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cAll of the amendments in my legislation come from an expert review of the current law, which was commissioned by the Government and published three years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should also be noted that the World Health Organisation is in favour of decriminalisation and the removal of mandatory wait periods, meaning Ireland is out of step with international best practice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An abortion Bill proposed by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has been defeated by TDs. The Bill would&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-447492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}