Letter to the editor from Maeve Taylor, IFPA director of advocacy and communications. Published in The Irish Times October 09, 2026.
Sir, – A private member’s Bill to remove the mandatory three-day waiting period from the 2018 abortion act is before the Oireachtas health committee. The task is straightforward: consider the evidence and decide whether there are any health-related reasons for retaining the provision.
The committee has a wealth of expertise at its disposal. It has heard evidence from reproductive healthcare experts, including representatives of the Irish College of GPs, the HSE and the National Women and Infants Programme. At the request of the committee, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) and other abortion care providers also provided written observations.
All concurred that a mandatory waiting period in law must not be confused with informed consent. The former is a coercive legal barrier, with no health benefits; the latter is an intrinsic element of healthcare and professional ethics.
The independent review of the Termination of Pregnancy Act recommended removing the mandatory waiting period. The health committee endorsed the review report in December 2023.
The IFPA has published a five-year analysis of clients who were required by law to undergo the mandatory waiting period. This data shows that, of the 2,749 clients who attended an initial abortion consultation with the IFPA from 2021 to 2025, and for whom we know the outcome, 98 per cent proceeded to access abortion care with our service or in hospital-based settings.
In each year, some clients made no further contact with the IFPA after their first appointment. The law respects women’s right to privacy and does not require them to give reasons for their decisions. We do not intrude on our clients’ privacy or speculate about outcomes. Indeed, we only contact clients or former clients for reasons related to their health.
However, we know from our services that this legal barrier causes pregnant people to experience anxiety, distress, additional expense and unnecessary travel. Combined with the rigid 12-week gestational limit, this can cause patients to become ineligible for care in Ireland and force them to travel abroad to access services. Rural, low-income and marginalised patients are particularly affected.
Moreover, we can categorically state that everyone who accesses our service receives expert medical advice in a non-judgmental healthcare environment, supplemented by specialist pregnancy counselling, if requested. It is the availability of quality healthcare at no cost that supports informed consent, not the enforced three-day delay.
Everyone who accesses the healthcare system has the right to do so with dignity and respect for their bodily autonomy, free from coercion. Policy should support access to healthcare, not obstruct it.
No health-related reasons have been shown for the imposition of the mandatory waiting period; the World Health Organisation recommends the removal of such barriers from abortion laws. If the health committee is serious about making good healthcare policy, it must do the same. – Yours, etc,
MAEVE TAYLOR,
Director of advocacy and communications,
Irish Family Planning Association,
Dublin 2.