Harris under pressure to ease abortion restrictions

Harris under pressure to ease abortion restrictions

Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland Reporter
November 1 2018

Simon Harris has come under pressure from a prominent pro-choice TD to lift strict requirements for women who need abortions.

Kate O’Connell, the Fine Gael TD, has tabled amendments to the health minister’s abortion bill including one that would lift a requirement for women to be examined by a medical professional before they can have a termination.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/harris-under-pressure-to-ease-abortion-restrictions-j6v35nxpb


Ireland – Committee asked to work on abortion bill over break

Committee asked to work on abortion bill over break

Monday, October 22, 2018
By Elaine Loughlin, Political Correspondent

Simon Harris has asked that the Oireachtas health committee sit during the Halloween break to progress abortion legislation as quickly as possible.

The health minister has committed to having abortion services in place from the start of January, but the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill will have to be passed first.

Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/committee-asked-to-work-on-abortion-bill-over-break-877267.html


Ireland – Abortion: Women nine weeks pregnant may be referred to obstetrician

Abortion: Women nine weeks pregnant may be referred to obstetrician
Minister appeals for colleagues to continue to be ‘constructive not obstructive’ in abortion debate

Thu, Oct 4, 2018
Marie O'Halloran

Women between nine and 12 weeks pregnant seeking an abortion may be referred to a consultant obstetrician, Minister for Health Simon Harris has indicated.

Mr Harris was introducing the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, which gives effect to the outcome of the abortion referendum when 66 per cent of voters supported abortion. He said TDs were making history in bringing the legislation forward to allow for abortion services in Ireland and repealing the Eighth Amendment after 35 years in the Constitution.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/abortion-women-nine-weeks-pregnant-may-be-referred-to-obstetrician-1.3651724


Ireland – ‘Very, very difficult’: Doctors raise doubts over abortion services timeline

‘Very, very difficult’: Doctors raise doubts over abortion services timeline
Oireachtas health committee is told start date for GP-led structure from early next year is ‘challenging’

Wed, Sep 19, 2018

Doctors have expressed concerns that they will not be able to implement the Government’s plan to roll out GP-led abortion services from its intended start date in January.

Representatives from the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists raised doubts at the Oireachtas health committee about being able to implement guidelines and provide abortion services by the Government’s proposed start-date early next year.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/very-very-difficult-doctors-raise-doubts-over-abortion-services-timeline-1.3634396


‘Ball and chain’ of Irish abortion ban finally gone, Clare Daly says

‘Ball and chain’ of Irish abortion ban finally gone, Clare Daly says
TD applauded by colleagues after impassioned speech during first Dáil sitting since referendum

May 29, 2018
Marie O'Halloran

Independents4Change TD Clare Daly became emotional in the Dáil on Tuesday as she described the abortion referendum result as “an enormous weight being lifted”.

In an impassioned speech which received a round of applause from TDs, Ms Daly said it was a “ball and chain that dogged us all our adult life being finally gone”.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/ball-and-chain-of-irish-abortion-ban-finally-gone-clare-daly-says-1.3512917


How the Yes and No sides won and lost the abortion referendum

How the Yes and No sides won and lost the abortion referendum

Harry McGee: Smiling Savita portraits proclaiming a new reality for Ireland
May 26, 2018

Harry McGee Political Correspondent

In the last few days of the referendum campaign on the Eight Amendment dozens of small posters appeared around Dublin.

The image was of Savita Halappanavar, instantly recognisable from her thick dark hair, wide smile, smiling eyes, and the Bindi dot on the forehead. The message contained one word: Yes. They were striking in their simplicity and directness.

The Savita case (read Kitty Holland’s report from 2012 here) was never too far away from people’s minds during the eight weeks that this extraordinary referendum campaign seeped into Irish public consciousness on doorsteps, in the streets, in the media, or on the airwaves… right up to polling day.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/how-the-yes-and-no-sides-won-and-lost-the-abortion-referendum-1.3509924


Ireland – Head of Savita Halappanavar inquiry calls for Yes vote

Head of Savita Halappanavar inquiry calls for Yes vote
Prof Sabaratnam Arulkumaran says legalising abortion ‘a public health issue’

May 22, 2018
Elaine Edwards

The head of the inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 has supported a Yes vote in the referendum on the Eighth Amendment “for the sake of women’s health and rights”.

Prof Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, former president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, addressed a press conference hosted by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) in Dublin on Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/head-of-savita-halappanavar-inquiry-calls-for-yes-vote-1.3504214


Ireland – Simon Coveney: My indecision on abortion is final (I think)

Simon Coveney: My indecision on abortion is final (I think)
Simon Coveney is suffering brickbats for changing his mind on abortion. Is this only a personal crisis, or does it reflect a split in the government, asks Stephen O’Brien

Stephen O’Brien, Political Editor
April 1 2018

The headline in the Irish Examiner confirmed that all was not well in Cork. “Coveney plan for legal lock in tatters,” the newspaper declared on Wednesday as the tanaiste, a local TD, made the news for the third day running.

“Tanaiste Simon Coveney has been left humiliated after his two-thirds Dail majority legal-lock plan for the government’s post-referendum abortion law was labelled unconstitutional, naive and deeply damaging to the ‘yes’ campaign,” the Examiner railed.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/simon-coveney-my-indecision-on-abortion-is-final-i-think-qjxq07h2p


How 99 strangers in a Dublin hotel broke Ireland’s abortion deadlock

How 99 strangers in a Dublin hotel broke Ireland's abortion deadlock
Ahead of a public vote in May, the work of a citizens’ assembly to debate the previously taboo subject is still being felt

Patrick Chalmers in Dublin
Thu 8 Mar 2018

Ninety-nine random strangers, a North Dublin hotel and a lot of cups of tea and coffee – not exactly the stuff of political revolution.

Yet little more than a year later, it appears that an unlikely assemblage of housewives, students, ex-teachers, truck drivers and others has brought Ireland to the brink of radical change to its abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/08/how-99-strangers-in-a-dublin-hotel-broke-irelands-abortion-deadlock


From Linda Kavanagh to Tracy Harkin: A guide to who’s who in Ireland’s divisive abortion debate

From Linda Kavanagh to Tracy Harkin: A guide to who's who in Ireland's divisive abortion debate
With Ireland's landmark referendum on the Eighth Amendment looming, voices on both sides of the abortion debate are getting ­ louder. But who exactly is lining out?

John Meagher
February 4 2018

It has been a momentous week for campaigners on both sides of the great abortion debate as it was finally confirmed that a referendum would be held this summer. Friday, May 25, is thought to be the most likely day for the referendum, one that pro-choice supporters hope will forever lift the ban on abortion.

But despite a series of opinion polls that indicate that the majority of the country wants change, the pro-life side believes a large cohort of people opposed to abortion have not had their voices heard.

Continued: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abortion-referendum/from-linda-kavanagh-to-tracy-harkin-a-guide-to-whos-who-in-irelands-divisive-abortion-debate-36558195.html