Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As today is 1 March, the Minister for Health should by now have the final report of the review of abortion legislation. This review was to look at the evidence of the operation of the Act. This evidence was collected from women who use the service and health professionals who provide it. We know from research carried out by the National Women's Council of Ireland and others that women still have to travel to Britain to receive abortion care, which defies the whole basis of what we attempted to do in repealing the eighth amendment. We need to know, from the Minister, the timeline for publication of the review. We have a timeline indicating he was to receive the final report from Ms Marie O'Shea by yesterday, but there is no timeline for its publication. This review was triggered on 1 January 2021, which was three years after the legislation came in. We are now getting a little worried about what will happen to women who continually have to travel abroad to receive abortion care.

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