Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

These are prudent amendments to the proposed requirement in section 12(3) that three days must elapse between the date of certification and the provision of abortion care. Sinn Féin strongly holds that there should be no possibility of the waiting period acting as an arbitrary barrier to care. There should be nothing in the Bill causing a doctor to think about anything except a pregnant woman requesting help. If a decision is made to include reference to a three-day waiting period in legislation, it must begin from a woman's request for an appointment with a medical practitioner if it is to be at all workable in practice. Barriers in this instance would be damaging to women and further force them to travel abroad or procure abortion pills on the Internet. The referendum campaign touched on these matters and people were adamant that they wanted to stop forcing women to travel abroad or having to buy unregulated pills on the Internet in order to treat themselves. This legislation will only have served its purpose if the number of women travelling abroad for termination or the ordering of abortion pills goes down.

Such a decision is all-encompassing and it consumes women for much more than the three days that some politicians, for whatever reasons, obsess over with others in society. In most cases women spend weeks coming to a decision and they do it alone in most cases as well. We must have common sense and the three-day period was never meant to mean there should be multiple visits to a GP on several days. It was meant to mean the service would be available three days after a person presenting at a GP surgery, over the phone, via email or on WhatsApp, if it is accepted in the clinic. The person would speak with the GP or secretary to make an appointment after making the momentous decision to attend a GP for this medical procedure. In order to ensure there cannot be unnecessary barriers we must change this unnecessary waiting period.

With respect to amendment No. 30, there is a blind spot in the legislation with women under the 12-week limit if waiting for the three days would take them over the limit, resulting in an inability to access medical services.It is sensible to insert a clause to the effect that if the three-day waiting period is overly burdensome for, say, a woman who is a prisoner of domestic violence, someone in direct provision or someone who finds it difficult to make that decision for one reason or another and eventually does but it is coming up to the 12 week barrier, as described eloquently and emotionally by Senator Ruane, it should be overridden.

With regard to an emergency provision to waive the three-day waiting period in serious circumstances, the Minister appears to suggest that cases of domestic or intimate partner violence would be covered by the emergency provisions of the legislation. I am not sure if that is the case. The emergency provision is confined to cases where the woman's life or health is at such a risk that an immediate abortion is required. That is different from domestic violence. Only a small subset of cases of domestic and intimate partner violence can meet that criterion. This amendment would allow a waiving of the three-day waiting period where it would cause a significant barrier to access, including because it may contribute to the woman exceeding the 12 week limit. That would ensure that women do not unduly suffer from the three-day waiting period. I and Sinn Féin support the amendments to section 12.