Bill to reduce abortion penalty to €1 fine introduced in Dáil

Legislation to reduce the penalty for having or assisting someone to have an abortion to a fine of €1 has been introduced in the Dáil.

Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said her group’s Protection of Life During Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill was a one-sentence piece of legislation.

She said she believed most people were unaware that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, 2013, allowed for a prison sentence of up to 14 years for having an abortion and this also applied to accessing an abortion pill.

The Dublin South-Central TD said the maximum penalty for having or assisting someone to have an abortion in Northern Ireland was a life sentence.

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She said three women in the North had recently been charged with accessing an abortion pill, and the situation in the North had prompted the new legislation.

The evidence suggested that three women a day in Ireland were accessing abortion medication online, Ms Smith said.

‘Unconscionable’

Ms Smith added that, whatever TDs’ views were on abortion, “the criminalisation and sentencing of women to a sentence of this magnitude is totally unconscionable and unacceptable”.

She said she had included the €1 fine as a penalty because on two previous occasions when legislation was drafted to decriminalise abortion the legislation was deemed unconstitutional due to the Eighth Amendment.

The legislation is expected to be debated next week.