The general ring-around began on Tuesday afternoon after the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Health let it be known that they will be supporting Sinn Féin’s Bill to scrap the mandatory three-day waiting period for women needing an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Not all their troops agree.
On slow days in the Dáil, lists provide a useful diversion.
What Government TDs (or usual suspects) would not row in behind their leaders on this contentious matter for some?
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Fianna Fáil’s Pat the Cope Gallagher, for one, who made it clear at the parliamentary party the previous night that he felt the Taoiseach was using his position to try to influence TDs to vote the same way as him.
He called Micheál Martin an “influencer”. (Next week, the Taoiseach is doing an online review of a hot new burger joint in Cork and sampling a breakout line of skincare products for the older man.)
This contentious three-day cooling-off period was added to draft legislation shortly before the 2018 abortion referendum because the then tánaiste, Simon Coveney, was having doubts about supporting it. So the Coveney Pause Clause was slipped into the proposed law and a reassured tánaiste declared he would be voting Yes.
While the government pandered to the reservations of a minister by inserting this proviso, the many more reservations expressed over including this rather condescending reflection time continued to grow after the nation voted by a wide margin to legalise abortion services.
Those concerns were borne out in an independent review carried out a number of years after that vote.
Back in 2018, after deeply depressing years of bitter debate in the Dáil and Seanad on this divisive topic, the overwhelming feeling among most politicians in Leinster House after the Eighth Amendment was finally repealed was one of deep relief.
This was particularly noticeable among many male deputies from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who, more than anything else, were delighted to see the back of this awkward debate about women and their pregnancies for once and for all.
Eight years on, and it’s on the agenda again.
Doing away with the three-day wait is Sinn Féin’s minimalist proposal to change the existing law. Recently, a Social Democrat Bill seeking broader changes was narrowly rejected by the Dáil. This latest attempt, with the backing of Government leaders, looked set to pass to committee stage in late-night vote on Wednesday.
But by what sort of margin?
By Wednesday afternoon, the number of Coalition deputies lining up against their political masters was building. And for this creaky aul’ observer of the original Repeal the Eighth upheavals, there was a dispiriting familiarity to the slowly dropping parade of TDs coming out to say they would vote against allowing women make their own choice about when to access abortion services within that 12-week limit.
There was a majority of male voices against the Bill. And a preponderance of aul’ fellas among this cohort.
Just like the last time.
They would not lose the party whip for choosing to vote against the line adopted by their leaders. In their chamber of choice, they enjoy the luxury of a free vote, exercising their right to choose what they think women in crisis situations should do. Pregnant women they know absolutely nothing about, except they know they absolutely can’t be trusted to make a critical decision about their own wellbeing because, well, aul’ fellas know better.
During Leaders’ Questions, Labour leader Ivana Bacik repeated the reasons she (and the independent reviewer and many medical experts) believed the Dáil should vote for the Sinn Féin Bill, which was debated on Tuesday night. She recalled her days in Trinity College Students’ Union in the late 1980s when “thousands had to travel abroad for necessary healthcare” while, years later, many more were self-medicating with pills purchased online.
“I will never forget taking calls from women and girls in crisis pregnancy who were seeking the phone numbers of abortion clinics in England and had nowhere else to turn,” she told the Taoiseach.
Now though, the constitutional ban is gone.
“What’s preventing women from getting the care they need is political squeamishness and cowardice,” said the Labour leader. “It is a residual, insulting, patriarchal mistrust of women that forms the basis of the mandatory three-day wait and the Government’s unwillingness to engage with the evidence that other change is needed.”
Still, she welcomed Micheál’s confirmation that he would be voting in support of the Bill to remove the three-day waiting period, even if he has been somewhat hazy on how his Government intends to proceed if or when it passes to committee stage. No harm in pointing out to him either that he was the one who asked barrister Marie O’Shea to carry out the independent review into how abortion care was working in Ireland.
It came out three years ago.
“From that moment, you and your colleagues were on notice the system was failing women and that arbitrary and paternalistic processes were failing women and, indeed, doctors.”
Bacik said the singular reform before the House on Wednesday wouldn’t be enough for “for women who receive a devastating diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality and who still have to travel abroad because of the unnecessarily restrictive provisions in the current law”.
Meanwhile, the reporters were on the phones trying to build up the list of names of TDs who would not be lining up behind him. Most of them were unsurprising. They included Government Chief Whip Mary Butler, who was implacably opposed to repealing the Eighth Amendment eight years ago.
When the Taoiseach said the Dáil should respect the “broad spectrum of sincerely held views” on the issue and that “we should respect everybody’s perspectives and views on this question”, Mary raised a hearty “hear, hear” from the seat behind. As it’s a free vote, at least Micheál won’t have to suffer the loss of his very capable Chief Whip when she votes against.
He raised some eyebrows when musing aloud about the many years Ivana campaigned for the abolition of the Eighth Amendment.
“On reflection, in my view, this area should never have been in the Constitution in the first instance. It came out of a particular era in the 1980s.”
He resisted the urge to say that it was a Fine Gael taoiseach at time.
“Be that as it may, the people spoke in a referendum.”
