Former TD admits three-day reflection period was a liberalising ploy

The three-day wait between requesting an abortion and it being carried out was designed to overcome “resistance” to liberalising Ireland’s abortion laws, an architect of the measure has confirmed.

Last month, deputies backed a Sinn Féin Bill to remove this three-day reflection period by 86 votes to 70. The proposal will now be considered by an Oireachtas committee.

And now Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher, who was the party’s health spokesman during the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment in 2018, has admitted the safeguard was only added to placate those on the fence, and said he would vote in favour of ditching it were he still in the Dáil.

‘Cynical’

Kelleher, a member of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment and a proponent of abortion up to 12 weeks, said: “There was always a view that the three days was something to look at and discuss again, because it was put in to maybe get people to look at the 12 weeks as a reasonable proposal.

“Three days was introduced to bring more people on to the side of supporting a referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment.”

The Pro Life Campaign commented: “Even if the three-day waiting period was introduced for cynical political reasons, you might have expected Kelleher and others to recognise its value by now, given the lives it has unquestionably saved. Instead, they want it removed.”

Between 2019 and 2024, according to Health Safety Executive (HSE) data, over 10,000 women who had requested an abortion did not return to see their GP to go through with it following the three-day reflection period.

Babies killed

Abortions in Ireland have exceeded 10,000 for the third year in a row, with almost 60,000 babies killed since abortion was liberalised following the 2018 referendum.

According to the Department of Health, there were 10,600 abortions in 2025. All but two per cent of these took place under twelve weeks, when women can abort their child for any reason and even carry it out at home.

A recent HSE report on the provision of abortion services revealed that 46,861 babies were killed between 2019 and 2024, bringing the total current number of abortions to 57,461.