Taoiseach confident of passing abortion legislation

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed confidence that TDs and Senators who campaigned against the repeal of the Eighth Amendment will not oppose the Government's proposed legislation to allow for abortion up to 12 weeks.

Mr Varadkar said he had still to see the draft legislation due to be brought before Cabinet next week by Minister for Health Simon Harris and he confirmed he expected it will be published before the end of the month.

Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were allowing their TDs and Senators a free vote on the legislation and although many Fianna Fail TDs and some Fine Gael TDs had campaigned against repeal, he did not expect a concerted campaign to stop the legislation going through the Dail and Seanad, he said.

“I’ve got no indication from the opposition, but my sense is that the vast majority of TDs even those that campaigned for a No vote, recognise the result that there was a clear 2:1 vote across the country in favour of change,” said Mr Varadkar during a visit in Cork.

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“And they will know what the vote was in their own constituencies too so even though they may have personal objections and they are entitled to have those objections, ultimately TDs and senators are democrats and I believe they will respect the wishes of the people.”

Mr Varadkar would not be drawn on whether the proposed legislation will include a section on exclusion zones around abortion provision centres where abortion opponents would be prohibited from protesting, saying he would wait until he saw the draft legislation before commenting.

He similarly declined to comment on whether the proposed legislation would clarify what exactly is meant by “shortly after birth” in relation to foetal fatal abnormality cases where abortion will be available to women whose pregnancies are diagnosed as having no chance of survival after birth.