Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Bríd Smith and her colleagues on bringing forward this Bill and giving us the opportunity to discuss and debate the issue of access to abortion services in Ireland five years on from the historic result in the repeal referendum when 66.4% of us voted "Yes" to repeal the eighth amendment and to ensure that women in Ireland would have access to the abortion healthcare we so clearly needed. For those of us who campaigned for many decades to see abortion law change, it was a momentous result. It showed the compassion and empathy people in Ireland had for the reality of crisis pregnancy and the real lived experiences of women and girls across Ireland. The key issue, reflecting on it five years on, is to ensure that abortion healthcare is available and accessible to all women and girls who need it. That is crucial.

In the years since we legislated to enable legal abortion to be carried out here, 775 women have travelled to England for abortion services there. This clearly illustrates that, as the O'Shea report so clearly puts it, there remain unnecessary barriers to access for women. We need to address those barriers.

I commend Marie O'Shea and her colleagues who carried out the very careful and comprehensive research and review into the operation of the legislation. Those colleagues include Dr. Catherine Conlon, who has a long track record of careful research on this issue. The recommendations and findings of the O'Shea review are sensible and clear and they would greatly enhance access to abortion care in Ireland. They are very much in keeping with the submission the Labour Party made to the review process. We called for a number of operational and legal changes to be made to ensure increased access. I note the Minister's comments about the operational changes that are needed and which he said will get under way. That is very welcome to hear. In particular, it is welcome to hear the Minister's commitment to ensuring that all maternity hospitals will provide abortion care services, as indeed they should.

It is disturbing to see that still, only 11 of 19 hospitals currently are providing these services. This is a real shortfall and again shows the serious barriers to access for many women. We also know that not enough GPs are providing access to early termination services and this again is a matter of genuine concern. We must see and I urge the Minister to ensure that we have stronger and quicker Government action in this regard. I also welcome the Minister's announcement regarding the safe access zones legislation. This is welcome and we have been looking for it for some time.

Two clear legislative changes are required to address what are serious barriers to access. One concerns the three-day waiting period. In our submission, we made the point that this aspect is medically unnecessary and creates significant barriers, especially for women living outside urban areas in places where there is limited access to providers and for those financially or socially vulnerable or disadvantaged. As Marie O'Shea has pointed out, this three-day waiting period can in practice be a wait of four days, five days or even longer. This is an unnecessary barrier and should be removed. The issue of decriminalisation is also urgent. Having spoken with doctors and abortion providers, this is still a serious chilling factor for medical practitioners. The criminalisation provision in the legislation is not necessary medically and it is certainly not the norm in other medical procedures. It should, therefore, be removed.

Regarding the Government's proposed amendment, I agree with all my colleagues on this side of the House who have pointed out that a year is too long to wait. We must see the Joint Committee on Health take on board the recommendations of the O'Shea review and we must move forward and debate this issue as an Oireachtas but we do not need a full year to do so. As we have the careful and well-reasoned recommendations from the O'Shea review, let us see the Government move swiftly on these to ensure women have access to the abortion healthcare we so badly need and to give full effect to the vote of the people five years ago today.

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