Letters

Three-day abortion wait

Other jurisdictions

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.
Mon Apr 29 2024 - 11:43

Sir, – In the Opinion debate (“Should the mandatory three-day wait for abortion be lifted? Dr Mary Favier and Eilis Mulroy debate”, April 23rd), Eilís Mulroy writes, “when asked at an Oireachtas Health committee meeting on October 18th, 2023 if any jurisdiction besides Ireland has a similar requirement for a three-day wait, O’Shea replied, ‘not to my knowledge’. She should have known that waiting periods are normal. For example, there’s a seven-day wait in Italy, a six-day wait in Belgium, a three-day wait in Germany. Ireland is not an outlier in this regard.”

I wish to correct Ms Mulroy’s assumptions.

A cursory glance at the relevant section of the report on the independent Review into the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, would have revealed my knowledge of conditions precedent to receiving a termination of pregnancy that exist in other jurisdictions, including mandatory waiting periods between requesting and receiving an abortion, as this is clearly stated on page 85.

Ms Mulroy’s description of the question put to me at the Oireachtas Health Committee is at odds with the wording used.

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Senator Martin Conway asked, in the context of a discussion on the three-day wait, “Is there any other example, anywhere in Ireland, for any medical procedure, or as a matter of fact, anywhere in the world, where there’s a three-day delay, from your research and your medical knowledge?” (as per the video of the debate that appears on the Oireachtas website).

This was construed by me as referring to examples of medical procedures other than abortion, and hence my response. – Yours, etc,

MARIE O’SHEA, BL,

Chairwoman,

Independent Review of the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018,

The Law Library,

Dublin 7.