The Social Democrats’ Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill has been defeated in the D\u00e1il by 85 votes to 30.<\/p>\n
There were 36 abstentions. Government TDs had a free vote on the issue.<\/p>\n
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill rejected the bill.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in, Independent Ireland and Independent TDs had intimated opposition to what was brought forward.<\/p>\n
The Green Party, People Before Profit and the Labour Party supported the legislation.<\/p>\n
Earlier today, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the promise of repeal the 8th has not been realised.<\/p>\n
She told the D\u00e1il that many women who receive fatal foetal abnormality diagnoses still have to travel to the UK for an abortion. She said women deserve compassionate, timely, evidence-based healthcare.<\/p>\n
The Social Democrats’ bill would have abolished the three-day waiting period for an abortion, revised the criteria for a termination on the grounds of fatal foetal abnormality, and removed the criminal sanctions found in the current laws.<\/p>\n
Ms Cairns said the law only permitted a termination where the condition is likely to lead to the death of the foetus before birth or within 28 days of birth.<\/p>\n
“Doctors, families and advocacy groups have repeatedly told us this threshold is too narrow and too rigid. Doctors are being placed in impossible positions and women are still travelling as a result,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The mandatory three-day waiting period is another example of a barrier that exists not because of medicine but because of politics and once again, it is women who pay the price.”<\/p>\n
Bill raised significant legal and operational concerns – minister<\/p>\n
The Government noted the bill at Cabinet yesterday and agreed to a free second-stage D\u00e1il vote as it was a conscience matter, however Minister Carroll MacNeill said it had raised significant legal and operational concerns.<\/p>\n
Of these, she said, the amendments to the three-day waiting period were the least difficult.<\/p>\n
She told the D\u00e1il that the reduction of the number of doctors making the decision was problematic and would create an uncertainty that, she said, would be unhelpful.<\/p>\n
She said the dual professional signatory was a fundamental principle of safety and widely practised in healthcare.<\/p>\n
The minister said she was aware of the tragic outcomes that had already occurred where core principles of safety had not been adhered to.<\/p>\n
On fatal foetal abnormality, she said it was extremely complex and raised many ethical issues.<\/p>\n
She said she empathised with what the bill was trying to achieve, but said the 28-day clause was not chosen at random.<\/p>\n
She said it was chosen because it was related medically to the period where an infant is most at risk and beyond that was very complicated.<\/p>\n
The bill was largely based on the recommendations of the O’Shea review of the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act.<\/p>\n
SF supports removing three-day wait<\/p>\n
Speaking before the vote, Sinn F\u00e9in Spokesperson on Health David Cullinane said that his party supports removing the three-day wait, never supported it in the first place and had already tabled legislation to remove it.<\/p>\n
However, he said, Sinn F\u00e9in had concerns around the new definition of a condition likely to lead to the death of a foetus, which he said was not grounded in the recommendations of the review of the act and ignored the intention of a clear and tight definition.<\/p>\n
He said it also has concerns about proposals to decriminalise practitioners who knowingly and wilfully act illegally beyond the scope of the Act.<\/p>\n
Mr Cullinane said it was astounding that a bill was being considered which went “far beyond” the recommendations of the review disrupting the consensus-based approach which brought about repeal.<\/p>\n
He said it would rip up many of the safeguards which were presented to the people in order to convince them to repeal the Eighth Amendment.<\/p>\n
Critical Infrastructure Bill passes<\/p>\n
The Governments Critical Infrastructure Bill has been passed by the D\u00e1il by 132 votes to 15.<\/p>\n
The bill allows the Government to designate specific infrastructure projects as critical infrastructure to speed up delivery.<\/p>\n
Designation will require all public bodies in the infrastructure approvals process to prioritise those designated projects and to cooperate and coordinate with each other.<\/p>\n
Projects will be designated as critical infrastructure by order laid before D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann.<\/p>\n
The bill creates a fast-track channel through existing processes for designated critical infrastructure to make sure this infrastructure is accelerated to the maximum degree possible.<\/p>\n
It now goes to the Seanad for consideration.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting: Joe Mag Raollaigh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Social Democrats’ Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill has been defeated in the D\u00e1il by 85 votes to 30.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-447712","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\/447712","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=447712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}