THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS will today introduce a bill aimed at updating Ireland’s abortion laws, especially to ensure that women do not need to travel abroad to terminate a pregnancy. 

Party leader Holly Cairns said the aim of the original campaign to legalise abortion, “to ensure women no longer had to travel for compassionate medical care”, has not been realised. 

Cairns said shortcomings in the law “mean women continue to be failed in this country”.

Cairns said she hopes that the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill 2026 will address the shortcomings identified in a 2023 review by barrister Marie O’Shea.

“In particular, my legislation seeks to ensure that women, who receive a devastating diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality, no longer have to travel for care,” Cairns said.

Cairns said the bill also removes “the patronising and paternalistic three-day mandatory waiting period”, which she said has no scientific basis, and instead “introduces a discretionary waiting period”.

She also said the proposed legislation “provides more certainty around abortion in cases where a woman’s health or life is at risk”, as well as clarifying the law “when it comes to conscientious objection and removes the criminalisation of medics”.

“It is now seven years since our abortion law was enacted and three years since an expert review found a range of problems with it. Every month that passes, without action, is a month in which more and more women are failed,” Cairns said.