Image: Holly Cairns
Government TDs (members of parliament) had a free vote on the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill as a matter of conscience. Yet “two Government Minsters abstained while three backbenchers supported the move to committee stage”.
The abortion reform bill, tabled by the Social Democrats, was defeated in the Dáil (Parliament) on Wednesday by 85 votes to 30, with 36 abstentions, including all Sinn Féin members. While a majority rejected the legislation, two Fine Gael TDs voted in favour of moving the Bill to committee stage, as did one Fianna Fáil TD.
Social Democrats’ leader Holly Cairns said the Bill would provide clarity on terminations for medical reasons, including fatal fetal abnormalities. The vote followed an emotional Dáil debate that heard calls to scrap the mandatory three-day waiting period and widen access in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities.
The Dáil was to debate a Bill from Holly Cairns on 13 May that would enact recommendations of a 2023 report into existing legislation, which came into effect after Ireland voted to liberalise its laws on terminations in a landmark referendum in 2018. Ms Cairns said her Bill would provide clarity on terminations for medical reasons, including fatal fetal abnormalities, remove an existing three-day waiting period between GP consultations prior to a termination and end the “criminalisation of doctors”. It apparently did not pass either.
SOURCES: Irish Times, by Cillian Sherlock/Press Association, 12 May 2026 ; Irish Times, by Marie O’Halloran. 13 May 2026 ; The Journal. 13 May 2026. Photo Holly Cairns: Wikipedia.