I, too, am opposing this Bill. I recently listened to the leader of the Social Democrats speaking on RTÉ radio about the importance of listening to women's abortion experiences. I want to ask Deputy Cairns this question directly today. Before bringing forward this Bill to abolish the three-day wait and widen the grounds for late-term abortions, did she accept or ignore the request to meet women who deeply regretted their abortions? Did she take the time to speak to women who benefited from the three-day reflection period and ultimately chose to keep their babies? These are not unreasonable questions. Pro-life groups and others have asked those questions in recent days and nowhere have I seen Deputy Cairns or anybody from her party answer them. It is well documented from replies to parliamentary questions that thousands of women have availed of the three-day wait and have gone on to keep their babies. With that evidence before us, I cannot fathom how any party would seek to abolish such a life-saving provision. There are 11,000 abortions taking place in Ireland each year, which is an unbelievably sad reality, yet today a political party in this House is seeking to remove one of the last provisions that offers a small glimmer of hope that the life might be saved. We are still in the first half of 2026 and already two men have received lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in coercive forced abortions. These cases and other evidence show that the number of coercive abortions is rising at an alarming rate. Will the Social Democrats rush to scrap the three-day wait instead of working with others in this House to try to deal with the issue of coercive abortion? We have soaring abortion numbers, including coercive abortions, and we need to deal with that issue also.

Sentiment score: 0.07