Irish Government publishes draft bill on how abortion would be regulated

Ireland’s health minister, Simon Harris has published the government’s draft legislation to regulate abortion in Ireland should the upcoming referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment pass.

The proposed abortion legislation is expected to achieve a majority backing of the upper and lower houses of parliament this week, enabling the government to set a polling date in May for the referendum.

The legislation will only be tabled if the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, which recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child, is passed allowing the government to repeal Article 40.3.3 of the constitution.

The type of abortion regime envisaged under the proposed legislation will allow for unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks. A waiting period of up to three days will be required

between a request for a termination from a doctor and the abortion being carried out.

Abortions will only be permitted beyond 12 weeks in emergency cases, when there is a threat to the life or threat of serious harm to the health of the mother, and in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. In all other circumstances, abortion will remain unlawful.

The bill will make late-term abortions unlawful on the grounds of a mother’s health, where the viability of the unborn child is established.

There has already been a great deal of heated public and political debate around some of the bill’s provisions and this is likely to continue in the run-up to the referendum.

Meanwhile, the deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, who was one of the most prominent pro-life voices in the government, announced at the start of the week that after consulting with senior clinicians he was now willing to support the government’s proposals for unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks.

The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) expressed dismay at Mr Coveney’s change of mind. “If someone like Minister Coveney can change his mind in a matter of weeks, it brings the question of trust in politicians to the front and centre of the debate because if we were to repeal the Eighth Amendment, politicians would be given a blank cheque to make whatever laws they wanted [on] making abortion more widely available,” Cora Sherlock of PLC warned.