The government has commenced the review process into Ireland’s abortion legislation.
Since abortion has been legalised many people have been able to access abortion here at home but others have been failed by our laws and healthcare system. We know that people are still travelling across the country and across the sea to access care that should be provided locally. We know that 88% of GPs and nearly half of maternity hospitals do not provide care. We know that people are facing harassment when accessing care, and we know that families facing complex foetal diagnoses are still being forced to travel because their situation doesn’t tick the right legal boxes.
There are simply too many barriers to abortion care and we say this is not good enough – the law has to change. Abortion must be fully decriminalised. No one should be forced to travel because of failed medical abortion, unreasonable gestational limits, or ambiguous legal definitions. No one should be refused access to care, or humiliated and traumatised for their decisions. No one but the pregnant person themselves should decide whether to continue or end their pregnancy.
There is a public consultation for you to share YOUR views. We will be sharing our own submission in the coming weeks – in the meantime, we’ve put together some information to help you share your thoughts.
How do I give my views?
You can submit to the consultation in any of the following ways:
- Filling out the survey online at https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/PublicConsultationOperationofAct2021. The form can save your work as you go so you do not have to fill it all out at once.
- Emailing your submission as an attachment (PDF or Word doc) to [email protected], with the subject line “Review of the operation of the Act”
- By posting your submission to: Bioethics 2 Unit Public Consultation, Department of Health, Block 1, Miesian Plaza, 50-58 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, D02 XW14
What if I want to write something rather than answering the questions on the form?
The government is requesting consultations that address “the operation of the legislation” and “respond to the questions in the consultation document”. The purpose of the legislation is “to provide for and regulate termination of pregnancy”. If you write something about how abortion is, or isn’t, being provided from your perspective, it will be considered.
When is the deadline?
The deadline for submissions is close of business on Friday, 1 April 2022.
What the online form contains
Abortion is a personal and sensitive topic for many people, and you may want time to consider your answers to the questions. In order to make filling in the online form as easy as possible, we have summarised the online form below. The complete form is available as a PDF here. The only compulsory question on the online form is whether you are submitting as an individual or as an organisation. You should answer as many of the questions as you feel comfortable answering.
Details
The first page asks if you are submitting as an individual or an organisation. This is the only compulsory question. You will be then asked for different information depending on the answer you give.
Personal details
The online form asks for your name, age, gender, and if you are occupied in health/social care services or involved in the provision of abortion.
All these questions are optional.
Organisational details
If you are submitting on behalf of a group, the online form asks for your organisation’s name, address, the name and job title of the person submitting, the type of organisation, and whether you are involved in providing abortion services.
All these questions are optional.
Questions about the Act.
The next page asks a number of questions about the law. We have included these below. All of the text boxes allow a maximum of 3200 characters/500 words each.
The first three questions are Yes/No questions, followed by text boxes.
- (a). To what extent do you agree that the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 has achieved what it set out to do?
- (b). Please provide detail / evidence to support your answer
- (a). Are there parts of the Act which, in your opinion, have not operated well?
- (b). If yes, please let us know which section(s) of the Act, and details of the issue(s) it is causing. Please provide detail / evidence to support your answer.
- (a). Are there parts of the Act which, in your opinion, have operated well?
- (b). If yes, please let us know which section(s) of the Act, and details of how it has operated / its benefit(s). Please provide detail / evidence to support your answer.
The next two questions provide text boxes to add your thoughts about the operation of the law and the services provided.
- Are there any further comments you would like to make on the operation of the legislation?
- Please provide detail / evidence to support your answer, where possible.
- Do you have any comments about services provided under the Act?
- Please provide detail / evidence to support your answer, where possible.
The final question is a multiple choice question about your awareness of the abortion legislation.
- Prior to this consultation what was your awareness of the Act?
- [Not aware/aware of some provisions/aware of most/aware of all provisions]
Privacy.
The final page asks if you consent to your submission being released.
‘Released’ means that it may be published on the government’s website, included in the final report, or listed as one of those submitted to the process. It may also mean that it is available in full in the event of Freedom of Information Act requests.
If you want to keep all of your submission private, select ‘No’. Your submission will be considered in the review but no details will be released.
If you want to keep part of your submission private, select ‘Yes, some parts may be released’ and use the text box to indicate which parts of your submission you do not want released.
More information on privacy and your submission is here.
Spread the word
We know that the public is pro-choice – 66.4% of us voted to Repeal the 8th Amendment, and polling consistently shows that people support a pregnant person’s right to make their own decisions. We need to make sure that the pro-choice public is heard in this process. Read about what abortion access is really like since Repeal, send in a submission, talk to friends and family about why abortion still isn’t accessible and encourage them to give their views. This is our chance to make abortion free, safe, legal and local for everyone who needs it.
