David Cullinane Proposes Ending Mandatory Three-Day Wait

Ceann Comhairle, in 2018 the people voted in a historic referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment and to remove legal barriers preventing women from exercising choice over their own pregnancy. This Bill is about respecting and trusting women in exercising that choice to access the care they need when they need it. It is about recognising that women do not take this decision lightly, that this is something they consider deeply and that they do not need the state or politicians to force them to wait longer as if they cannot be trusted to make decisions about their own pregnancies for themselves on their own time. This is, Minister, a straightforward and a targeted Bill. It does just one thing. It proposes to remove the mandatory three-day wait for access to an abortion during early pregnancy. It does this by deleting subsection 3 of section 12 and amending subsection 4 to remove the requirement for three days to have elapsed before a termination can be carried out. It does not require an abortion to happen on the day of a first consultation. But where a woman is certain that this is what she wants, it allows her to make that decision for herself in her own time about her own pregnancy without a mandatory delay. I am open and hoping to work across the House on an amendment to clarify this further in the Bill and I understand that there may be a number of technical amendments needed by government if and when this goes to committee stage. Under the current law, where a woman attends a doctor seeking a termination in pregnancy within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the doctor must certify that it has been less than 12 weeks since the end of the pregnant woman's last period. A woman must then wait at least three days before the doctor can carry out the procedure. The termination cannot happen at all if a woman subsequently times out of the 12-week period due to the mandatory delay. Instead, our Bill allows a termination to take place as soon as may be desired by the woman in her own time. This allows women who have made up their mind to access care when they seek it and still allows time for reflection for a woman who still needs time to think about this decision. This is important because the clear feedback from women is that women were being pushed beyond the 12-week threshold by the three-day mandatory wait or were unable to secure a second appointment on time, which denied them their choice to end a pregnancy. Sinn Féin has always been clear and consistent that we did not approve of the mandatory waiting period, that it puts women in difficult positions and that it is not compassionate to women who have suffered rape or sexual assault, to women who learned of their pregnancy late or to women who are subject to controlling or abusive partners, for whom that first appointment may be the only appointment that they get. The three-day wait was examined as part of the review of the operation of the Act. Its removal is one of the clearest recommendations arising from that process. We recognise in law and in policy that women should have access to abortion services on the basis of their own choice. This was the compassionate position put before the people in 2018 and it is the basis on which services have been provided since. The question before us now is whether the state should continue to impose an arbitrary delay after a woman has already made her decision and presented to a doctor. I do not believe that it should. This waiting period does not provide care, it does not provide support, it does not make any service safer, it simply makes access harder, especially for those who can least afford delay. It can create real difficulty for women, for women who have travelled long distances, for women arranging time off work or childcare, for women in crisis, for women living with coercive controlling partners or domestic violence. For many women, having to return days later is not a small inconvenience, it can be a very serious barrier and has been identified as such. Removing the mandatory waiting period does not mean that a termination must take place on the first day. It does not remove a woman's ability to take more time if she wants to and in those circumstances she should and she must be supported. What this bill does is remove the requirement that the state must force every woman to wait, regardless of her circumstances or her decision or her health or her needs. This bill clearly sets out the Sinn Féin policy which was endorsed earlier this year. I think in conclusion I can call it that this bill strikes the right balance, it is the right change to make, it is overdue, it respects women's decisions, it removes an unnecessary barrier to care. There are many other issues that these Houses should and must work through arising from the review of the Act. So I want to commend this bill to the House.