I thank Deputy Cairns and my Social Democrats colleagues for bringing forward this Bill. It is not a simple area of legislation but our job as legislators is not to shy away from the difficult conversations and to respond to the difficult realities that citizens and people in this country are living through. This is a deeply emotional topic. As a father and a partner, I have experienced the pain of pregnancy loss. I have close friends who had to travel due to a fatal foetal abnormality. They had to put their child in a cardboard box in the car and bring it home on the ferry. When Independent Ireland talks about tragedy and trauma, what about the tragedy and trauma inflicted on the more than 200 women, their partners and others who go through this? The reality is that our families, people we know and friends in our communities are having abortions because they choose to and they need to. That is the reality. This proposal and legislation are about providing abortion care to women who need it. A vote against this Bill is a vote against a law that fully respects the bodily integrity, autonomy, equality and dignity of women. This is about trusting women. It is about giving women their autonomy. The Act, as it stands, imposes an unnecessary mandatory three-day waiting period for abortion care. The legislative review, the O'Shea report, recommends the removal of section 23 from the legislation. I spoke to a researcher involved in that review who pointed out that the need for the removal of the criminalisation of abortion is because it is a reason that GPs are not opting to provide the care that is needed. Independent Ireland and Áontu also made an accusation relating to women in homelessness. No one has pushed for action on women and children in poverty, in homelessness, in domestic violence and with disabilities more than the Social Democrats. That is just a red herring, trying to draw attention away from what this legislation is actually putting forward. The O’Shea review was informed by the ICGP and the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and represents the recommendations of practitioners for best practice in healthcare provision. To enact these recommendations would follow the principle of evidence-based policy, which is at the core of what the Social Democrats are about. This Bill is drawn from good practice, as recommended by healthcare providers, legal experts and, most importantly, the women and patients themselves. Abortion care is about time-sensitive healthcare. The imposition of a mandatory three-day wait is in direct opposition to that.

Sentiment score: 0.11