When the Irish people voted to repeal the eighth amendment, they voted to trust women and to trust the decisions they made about their own healthcare, their own bodies and their own lives. However, they also trusted legislators. They trusted them to listen to that O'Shea review when it came through and to act on the decisions or recommendations that came out of it. Ultimately, when repeal happened, it put the ball firmly in the court of this House. It is now up to us to do what is right, and it is right to remove the three-day limit. I did not agree with it at the time and I certainly do not agree with it now because we know this is more than just an inconvenience. For some women, this has some very real consequences. For women living with intimate partner abuse and domestic violence, those three days, each and every one of them, is another barrier to healthcare. For survivors of rape or sexual assault, being forced to navigate an unnecessary delay adds further trauma to an already devastating experience. The Minister of State spoke of a 14-year-old, and I agree with him. We never need to see another case like we have in the past. We also know there still remains, to some degree, limited levels of services, and obtaining a GP appointment can be very difficult in some areas. For those women who discover their pregnancy later than expected, these three days can mean the difference between accessing healthcare here or being forced to travel abroad, and that causes distress. It has pushed women beyond the legal time limits for care in their own country. That is not what repeal intended to do. It is certainly not what I campaigned or voted for. To be clear, there will always be the option for a woman to wait. It will always be there but it will be her choice whether it is one day, two days or three days; it will not be mandatory and will not be set down arbitrarily in legislation. This Bill recognises every woman's situation is different, and that decisions about healthcare are best made by the women themselves, supported by their doctors and not dictated to. If we want to get to a compassionate healthcare system, we must remove barriers, not reinforce and create them. Removing this three-day waiting period brings us that little step closer to a healthcare system that respects dignity, autonomy and access to timely care.

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