The Irish House of Commons has rejected both the proposal to eliminate the mandatory three-day  waiting period before having an abortion and the proposal to expand the grounds for late-term abortion. The initiative was defeated by 85 votes against and 30 in favor. 

Pro-life MPs have provided an important piece of data: between 2019 and 2024, during the three-day reflection period, more than 10,000 women did not return to abortion clinics to have an  abortion .

Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill  told  the House that she could not support the text “from either a legal or operational point of view” and described the proposal as a “blanket decriminalization” of abortion.

Currently in Ireland, abortion is permitted when two doctors certify that the baby is likely to die before or shortly after birth, and the reform aimed to extend the criterion to one year after delivery.

Differences with the Spanish case

In our country,  Organic Law 1/2023  introduced changes to the existing regulations on abortion (IVE), eliminating both the 3-day reflection period before its performance and the obligation to provide information on alternatives (maternity, aid, etc.) to the woman who wants to have an abortion.

Following its entry into force in 2023, the voluntary terminations of pregnancy in 2024 were already carried out under the regulations modified by LO 1/2023, reflecting the following effects: in 2024 the number of declared abortions was 106,172, which represents a significant increase compared to previous years.

The  2024 report from the Ministry of Health , which includes a comparison from 2015, confirms an upward trend in the number of abortions.

Bioethical assessment

The differences between the Irish and Spanish cases reveal very different perceptions of the tragedy of abortion. The loss of human life, coupled with the risks associated with the  long-term effects  of abortion on the women who undergo them, helps to highlight the tragedy behind every abortion.

In contrast, and to safeguard both the right to life of the unborn child and the health of the woman having an abortion, as well as to offer her the possibility of making well-informed decisions, including the risks, alternatives and the support she can access if she continues her pregnancy, other countries, such as Ireland in this case, limit access to abortion that is facilitated in Spain.

Inducing women to have abortions by hindering their access to rigorous and complete information that would allow them to make truly autonomous decisions contributes to worsening the consequences of the abortion option, which is often adopted in situations of anguish, fear, abandonment, or pressure, exacerbated by the lack of information and support.

Providing a period of reflection in which a woman considering having an abortion can access, as the Irish case shows, this information about alternatives to abortion and its possible consequences, would help many women abandon their intention to have an abortion.

Julio Tudela. Ester Bosch. Bioethics Observatory. Institute of Life Sciences. Catholic University of Valencia