The Life Institute urges TDs to vote against abortion: says 3-day wait “essential for women”

The Life Institute has urged TDs to reject the Bill seeking to scrap the 3-day waiting period before a woman undergoes an abortion, and warned that the measure could lead to an additional 2,000 abortions every year. 

“The 3-day wait is essential for women, who should not be rushed into momentous decisions where they are all too-often made to feel they have no choice,” said Megan Ní Scealláin of Life Institute. 

In addition, the pro-life group is urging TDs to also reject the aspect of the Bill seeking to expand grounds for late-term abortions, which they say is founded on misguided notions of compassion. 

And spokeswoman Megan Ní Scealláin said it was “almost beyond belief” that any TDs “sought to further liberalise Ireland’s abortion laws when our shocking, spiralling abortion rate is already at almost 11,000 babies aborted a year”. 

“The 3-day wait before making such a huge decision is clearly a major factor in giving a number of women time to think, and preventing our abortion rate from being even worse than it already is,” she said.  

“We know over 10,000 women did not return for an abortion after the 3-day period of reflection in the period from 2019 and 2024,” she said. 

Information released to TD Carol Nolan stated that between 2019 and 2024, 10,426 women did not return for a second appointment after the 3 day waiting period. This is approximately 18% of women who initially sought an abortion in Ireland during this timeframe. This is not an insignificant figure, and it needs to be addressed by those TDs pushing for the law to be changed again - instead of being ignored or denied”.

“During the Oireachtas debate this morning, multiple TDs in support of the Bill not only ignored this entirely crucial and central statistic, but went as far as to deny the merit of it, with Labour’s Maria Sherlock claiming that the 3 day waiting period was an “unnecessary, impractical and stigmatising barrier” to abortion, and that when women go to their GP seeking an abortion, “they’re already thought long and hard about it”, and therefore, do not need a mandatory waiting period. This is evidently not the case at all - the figures released to Carol Nolan from the HSE is crucial data that TDs must acknowledge,” the spokeswoman said. 

As well as removing the mandatory waiting period before an abortion, the Bill also seeks to widen the grounds for late term abortions in the case of a diagnosis of a “fatal condition affecting the foetus”. 

Ms Ní Scealláin said: “No one, medical professional or otherwise, can determine with absolute certainty how short a baby’s life will be. As we saw in the unspeakably tragic case of baby Christopher, within mere months of the law changing once the 8th was repealed, tests for these life-limiting conditions can be wrong. Why would we encourage grieving parents to take this chance?” Ms Ní Scealláin asked. “Parents need counselling and support. Not the option to shorten what may be an already short life of a dearly loved son or daughter”. 

“Ultimately,” Ms Ní Scealláin stated, referencing TD Carol Nolan’s key-point during the debate, “the Irish people did not give our elected representatives in government “a blank cheque to go on eliminating all protections for unborn children, until no such protections exist at all”. This was not the premise under which the 8th was repealed, and comments by Labour’s Conor Sheehan during this morning’s debate, claiming that “the 8th amendment was never meant to be a ceiling… it has not gone far enough” are abhorrent, and showcase the real and sinister intentions of the politicians pushing for abortion in this country - ‘abortion on demand, no questions asked’. 

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For further information please contact info@thelifeinstitute.net