{"id":596453,"date":"2026-05-21T16:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596453\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:35:15","slug":"abortion-is-the-only-healthcare-service-on-which-the-law-imposes-a-waiting-period-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596453\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion is the only healthcare service on which the law imposes a waiting period \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir, \u2013 As Breda O\u2019Brien notes<\/a>, recent coverage of abortion<\/a> reform has tended to focus more on the mandatory waiting period than other proposals.<\/p>\n

The waiting period is certainly not the only flaw in the law. The restrictive gestation limit, the narrow grounds for access for health and foetal anomaly reasons, and the chilling effect of the criminal provisions impose barriers to access. They force women to seek abortion care outside of Ireland.<\/p>\n

The mandatory waiting period has material consequences. The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) knows from our services that it causes significant stress, distress and delay. It cannot be waived and, in some cases, pushes women over the 12-week threshold for access. <\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends against enforced delay provisions. A WHO review of studies published between 2010 and 2020 found no health benefits. Rather, the evidence showed that mandatory waiting periods are experienced negatively, as a restriction on access to abortion. <\/p>\n

IFPA data aligns with this finding. The vast majority (98 per cent) of those who attend for a first consultation go on to have an abortion.<\/p>\n

Between 2021 and 2024, a total of 2,390 clients had a first abortion consultation. Of these, 4.1 per cent no longer needed abortion due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or a negative pregnancy test. And 104 clients (4.3 per cent) made no further contact after their first appointment. <\/p>\n

Of the remaining 2,187 clients who were subjected to the mandatory waiting period, 98 per cent (2,146 clients) then accessed abortion care \u2013 88.5 per cent (1,936 clients) accessed abortion care at the IFPA, while 9.6 per cent (210 clients) availed of hospital- or GP-based services. Under 2 per cent continued the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Nothing in our data indicates that the three-day wait influences women\u2019s decisions about pregnancy. Abortion is the only healthcare service on which the law imposes a waiting period.<\/p>\n

In all other circumstances, healthcare providers are trusted to ensure informed consent, patients are trusted to know their own minds, and treatment is begun as soon as possible. <\/p>\n

The mandatory waiting period is an unacceptable, demeaning and patronising infringement on reproductive rights. Removing it is not enough to resolve the harms of the law; however, it is a necessary step towards respect for reproductive autonomy. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n

MAEVE TAYLOR,<\/p>\n

Director of Advocacy and Communications,<\/p>\n

Irish Family Planning Association,<\/p>\n

Dublin 2.<\/p>\n

Sir, \u2013 In her article \u201cWe only talk about access to abortion-never the reasons why women choose,\u201d it\u201d, (May 17th,) 2026, Breda \u00d3 Brien references START 2019 abortion care data in discussing the recommendation to remove the statutory three-day waiting period under the 2018 legislation.<\/p>\n

Her interpretation of the data is misleading. The discrepancy between visit-one figures (initial consultation) and visit-two figures (where medication is prescribed) cannot simply be assumed to represent women \u201cchanging their minds\u201d.<\/p>\n

Patients may not proceed to visit 2 with a particular provider for many reasons, including miscarriage, referral to hospital-based care, transfer to another provider, or evolving clinical or social circumstances which healthcare providers do not routinely record.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the 2018 Act does not require women to explain or justify their decisions. It is therefore not possible to retrospectively attribute motivations to those who did not proceed to treatment. <\/p>\n

Equally, it is plausible that the mandatory three-day wait itself generates additional visit-one consultations, where women who might otherwise present once a decision is fully made attend earlier because the law requires a delay before treatment.<\/p>\n

The START (Southern Task Group on Abortion and Reproductive Topics), study represented the first attempt to collate community-based abortion care data in Ireland, in the absence of any comprehensive national primary care data collection system. This work is now being expanded through the larger abortion care activity data in general practice (ADAPT) study. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n

Dr Trish Horgan,<\/p>\n

START,<\/p>\n

Cork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 As Breda O\u2019Brien notes, recent coverage of abortion reform has tended to focus more on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[18172,203873,102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-596453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-abortion","tag-breda-o-brien","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}