Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said opposition to her abortion law reform legislation, from the Health Minister and Sinn F\u00e9in, is shocking and disappointing.<\/p>\n
Deputy Cairns said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are clear gaps in the abortion law that was introduced following the Repeal referendum which are having a negative impact on women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not my opinion. That is the conclusion of an expert review of that law, commissioned by the government, and published three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat review found that women who receive a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality are still being denied compassionate care in this country; that the mandatory three-day wait period was a barrier to care; and that the criminalisation of doctors was resulting in risk averse and overly cautious decision making.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has sat on its hands, while that expert report gathered dust, and has failed to enact a single legislative amendment to the existing legislation. My Bill was an attempt to change that \u2013 and improve care for women.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, in the D\u00e1il today, the Minister, who said she sympathised with the intent of my legislation, said that she was unable to support any aspect of it \u2013 something I found truly extraordinary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is, in effect, the Health Minister, for the first time, acknowledging that the government intends to ignore the recommendations of its own expert report when it comes to amending our existing abortion law.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of agreeing to work with me, to further examine and analyse my legislation in detail at the Oireachtas Health Committee, she invited me to debate aspects of my Bill ‘in another chamber’. As legislators, the chambers we should be debating legislation in is the D\u00e1il or Oireachtas committees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Health Minister\u2019s disappointing contribution was then followed by a shocking contribution from Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s health spokesperson David Cullinane, who claimed my legislation lacked ‘democratic legitimacy’.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an outrageous and spurious attack on legislation, which is based on an expert analysis of the existing law \u2013 and aims to deliver on the promises that were made to women, during the Repeal campaign, that they would not have to travel abroad for compassionate care.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who fought for Repeal will be stunned at the dismissive approach Sinn F\u00e9in has taken to my Bill. It is clear that the party is using legislation it introduced in a hurry last week, to remove the mandatory three-day wait period, as a pretext to justify their lack of support for the Bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing and deeply regrettable that both the government and Sinn F\u00e9in are apparently refusing to support this legislation\u2019s passage to committee stage \u2013 where it could undergo pre-legislative scrutiny and where amendments could be made to improve the legislation.<\/p>\n
“This failure to act will result in women continuing to be failed and continuing to be exported, far from their support networks, for medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 13, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said opposition to her abortion law reform legislation, from the Health Minister and Sinn F\u00e9in, is shocking and disappointing. Deputy Cairns said: \u201cThere are clear gaps in the abortion law that was introduced following the Repeal referendum which are having a negative impact on women. \u201cThat is not my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,843,11,400,7,500],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abortion","category-abortion-reform","category-health","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release","category-repeal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n