Unrestricted access to abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is likely to become law if a referendum next year sees the removal of Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn, The Irish Catholic understands.
Following the recommendation from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution that article 40.3.3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann ought to be repealed in full, it is understood that the committee report will be debated in the Dáil next year with a view to holding a repeal referendum in May or June.
The Government is also expected to introduce draft legislation based on the committee recommendations, which at least six ministers are believed to support.
Restrictions
The committee has recommended abortion be allowed without restrictions during the first trimester of pregnancy, but said gestational limits for situations where a woman’s mental or physical health is at risk should be “guided by the best available medical evidence”.
This could potentially mean that Ireland’s abortion regime could be more lax than that in England and Wales, where 97% of 2016’s 190,000 abortions were performed on mental health grounds.
The committee’s recommendations come against a backdrop of the pro-choice organisations Amnesty International and the Irish Family Planning Association being directed to return illegal donations from the US-based Open Society Foundation, with 11 of the 14 repeal-backing committee members having been lobbied by one or both organisations in the year before the committee sat.