Carl Kinsella

I mean, it doesn't seem very plausible.

And so by doing away with that three-day wait period, we would expect that, you know, there's probably quite a lot of women at the moment, and it's obviously very hard to gather statistics on this, but who might be pushed because of the three-day wait period might be pushed out of the 12 weeks and therefore can't actually access abortion services.

And so it seems like a very positive thing that this would be done away with in terms of access to abortion in Ireland.

It's interesting, partly because this bill was brought by Sinn Féin.

And a few weeks ago, people will remember, we actually discussed it on the podcast, and Sock Dems had brought a similar bill that was done away with the three-day wait period.

And at that time, Sinn Féin abstained from it.

At that time Sinn Féin had already been planning to bring forward this bill and the reason they abstained from the previous one was because it also included a provision for expanding access to abortions for situations whereby there is fatal fecal abnormality involved.

Currently under Irish legislation

Fatal fetal abnormality, and this is obviously, you know, grim to talk about, but it only covers cases in which the fetus is expected to die within 28 days of being born.

And the Sockdams bill would have expanded that definition further.

beyond 28 days.

So this bill that has just passed doesn't include that at all.

And Sinn Féin, that extra provision was why Sinn Féin abstained.

And Gav Riley actually posted quite a good explainer a couple of weeks ago as to why Sinn Féin kind of held these different positions at different times, it seems.

And it is because Sinn Fein's stance on abortion is determined by their Ardash, and there needs to be a vote in their Ardash to change any policy or approach that they have towards abortion legislation.

And they have never voted on the expansion of the fecal-fetal abnormality definition, which ultimately tied the hands of...

Sinn Fein TDs a couple of weeks ago when there was the Sock Dems bill.

But at the Ardash, they have voted on doing away with the three-day waiting period.

So they're happy to move forward with that.

It's also interesting that some Fianna Gael and Fianna Fáil government TDs voted with Sinn Fein on this, but moved the three-day wait, including Micheál Martin and Simon Harris.