The Irish government has approved controversial plans to give women paid leave after undergoing an abortion.
Abortion is a relatively new phenomenon in the Republic of Ireland. It was legalised following a referendum in 2018 in which two thirds of voters declared their support. In less than a decade since then, one in six Irish pregnancies now ends in an abortion.
Prior to the referendum the number of legal abortions in the Republic of Ireland was always in the low double digits. In 2019 it rose drastically to 6,666 abortions. This was followed by a slight dip and a drop off during Covid, before storming past the 10,000 mark in 2023 and reaching a record of over 10,800 in 2024.
Now the government is proposing that women who have had an abortion before 12 weeks, or who have suffered a miscarriage before 23 weeks, be entitled to paid leave.
The move has provoked controversy for not only normalising abortion, but for equating it with having a miscarriage.
Speaking to The Catholic Herald, Sandra Parda of the Life Institute, said, “It is deeply offensive to women who have suffered the trauma of miscarriage to equate their loss with an elective abortion.”
She added, “Miscarriage is a devastating loss. Abortion is an intentional act to end the life of an unborn child. They are fundamentally different.”
The measure has yet to be approved by the Irish Parliament.
Last month the Irish Parliament also took the decision to remove the mandatory three-day waiting period for those seeking an abortion.
Pro-abortion campaigners described the rule as an “unnecessary” barrier. Critics of the change however noted that the inclusion of the three-day measure was used during the 2018 referendum to convince wavering voters that there would be “protections and safeguards”.
Robert Troy, a Fianna Fáil junior minister, told the Guardian, “It doesn’t do politics any justice to row back a short time later and try and change things.”
