By Laura Fitzgerald
Call to action: Ruth Coppinger’s bill to abolish the three-day wait for abortion access, will be introduced at the first stage on Tuesday 20 January. This needs your action. Please contact TDs from all the parties that supported a ‘Yes’ in the repeal referendum in 2018 to demand that they uphold the right to abortion access and support Ruth’s bill on Tuesday.
Abortion rights were won in 2018 off the back of a sustained social movement. It was a huge victory, but the legislation implemented was imperfect. The then Fine Gael-led government, supported by Fianna Fáil, toned down the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on abortion – recommendations that, in spite of the conservatism of the political establishment that set it up, advocated for enlightened legal changes exemplifying bodily autonomy, choice and free and full access to abortion and contraception, in line with the demands of the feminist movement.
Abortion is free on request, up to 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, it’s available in restricted circumstances, including a fatal foetal diagnosis but the restrictions surrounding the same lead to lack of access in practice. A mandatory ‘three-day wait’ period, even in the first trimester, is a barrier to access, forcing two GP appointments on abortion seekers and placing special burdens on the most marginalised, including for example those women / girls / gender-queer people who are trapped in abusive relationships, who live in rural areas, or who are disabled.
Conservative pushback
The flaws and restrictions in the status quo mean that since 2018 approximately 300 women per year have still had to travel off this island for abortion access. This goes directly against what 66% of the population voted for in 2018 – namely no more forcing women abroad for abortion access.
In the last Dáil, People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith put forward an important piece of legislation, co-signed by Solidarity TD Mick Barry, essentially proposing to enact the full recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly, including decriminalising abortion and abolishing the three-day wait. In 2023, this legislation was approved at second stage by 67–64 with eight abstentions after government TDs were given a free vote.
On Wednesday, 17 December 2025, the current Dáil indicated an alarming step backwards. In a 73 to 71 vote, this bill was not restored to the order paper, despite it being supported in the last Dáil. Some government TDs abstained on the vote.
Another troubling development was the degree to which anti-choice fanatic, Peadar Tóibín of Aontú, managed to go ‘viral’ with his misogynistic scare-mongering online about 71 TDs voting to decriminalise “abortion up to birth”. Underneath this disingenuous rhetoric lay the truth — namely that Tóibín and Aontú want to criminalise women who access abortion.
His campaign was so successful that even a Sinn Féin TD, Rose Conway-Walsh, released a statement to distance herself from the actual content of the scientifically-informed and women’s health-affirming bill. SF were late to the game in supporting repeal, and obviously still contain some vacillators on abortion rights.
Rise up for your rights
This is all a wake up call. We must respond by demanding the expansion of our rights. To this end, Ruth Coppinger, Solidarity TD, is proposing legislation to abolish the three-day wait. Let’s build an active movement to support this eminently sensible proposal that will end a paternalistic and medically unnecessary practice, while expanding abortion access.
Let’s make sure TDs from every political party, from SF in the opposition to FF and FG in Government – who were compelled to support repeal and abortion rights by the power of the mass social movement that delivered them – feel the pressure to vote in favour when Ruth proposes the legislation.
A more overt misogyny, and increased authoritarianism and far-right and fascistic elements define this era of capitalism globally. Not only must we reignite the en masse rising up of people that defined the repeal movement, we must imbue the same with concrete demands for increased rights as well as a vision for a socialist alternative that can extinguish imperialism, billionaire rule, and a system that rests on exploitation and oppression.
