Gabhaim buíochas le Holly Cairns as an reachtaíocht seo a thabhairt chun cinn. I thank Holly Cairns for bringing forward this legislation. I thank all the Deputies who have spoken during this debate. I take the earlier contribution by the Minister for Health in good faith. However, what is missing from what the Minister said is any commitment to bring forward legislation to address the very serious flaws in the existing legislation that were identified in the review. Also missing from what the Minister said was any commitment that these legislative flaws and gaps would actually be addressed. We have received no firm commitments from the Government today that it will actually do anything to fix the very serious issues identified in the review. The Minister said that the situation of women being forced to travel abroad would not be fixed for every situation. She did not say that she would fix the very grave situation of fatal foetal abnormalities where women are still being forced to travel to the UK in the most horrific circumstances, as my colleague Jennifer Whitmore spoke about earlier. I want to summarise the current situation. In 2018, an overwhelming majority of Irish people voted to repeal the eighth amendment. This explicitly gave the Oireachtas the remit to legislate for abortion. It also explicitly included a commitment from the Government to review the legislation. The barrister Marie O'Shea, who conducted the review, said that vulnerable women who continued to be forced abroad for terminations were being treated like criminals. She said that a lack of action on the many legislative recommendations in her report meant that some pregnant women are being left to face profoundly sad conditions. The review found a number of very serious flaws in the legislation, including that doctors find the law unclear and fear clear criminal sanction, leading to defensive medicine and denial of care. The prospect of criminal sanction and adverse media scrutiny has likely led to women being denied care. Criminalisation is not theoretical; it is actively harming patients. The mandatory three-day waiting period has a physical and psychological impact on women. It is particularly onerous for people in marginalised groups and those living in rural areas. The waiting period is not neutral. It causes measurable harm and pushes women past the 12-week limit. It is worth noting that the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has called on the Irish Government to abolish this mandatory three-day waiting period. It is also worth saying that middle-ground voters in the referendum were particularly concerned about women who needed terminations for medical reasons being forced to travel abroad, and they wanted to change this. Despite the review commissioned by the Government, which was published more than three years ago, what we have is inaction. It is clear today from the Minister's comments that this inaction will continue.

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