The Dáil has voted by 73 to 71 not to restore a Private Member’s Bill on abortion to the order paper after it fell with the dissolution of the last Dáil. It is the closest vote in this Dáil session.
Government TDs had a free vote on the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill, which abolishes the three-day waiting period for abortion on request.
Just two votes separated the sides. Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee were among TDs who voted in favour of the legislation being restored to the order paper.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers also voted in favour of restoring the Bill. He had been on the No side in the 2018 referendum which repealed the ban on abortion.
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Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless also voted in favour of restoring the legislation, as did Ministers of State Timmy Dooley and Christopher O’Sullivan.
Ministers of State Emer Higgins and Colm Brophy abstained, as did Fianna Fáil TDs Malcolm Byrne and Naoise Ó Cearúil.
Labour, the Social Democrats and a number of Independents voted in favour, while Independent Ireland TDs present in the chamber voted against, as did Aontú.
The legislation also provides for abortion on request before foetal viability and to allow for abortion on grounds of fatal foetal abnormality that are likely to lead to the death of the foetus before birth or within a year of birth.
Legislation that is not passed when a general election is called automatically falls with the dissolution of the Dáil. It must be restored to the order paper to allow it to be further debated by the new Dáil.
The Bill was introduced in the last Dáil term by then People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, who retired at the last election, and passed the second stage.
Party colleague Paul Murphy on Wednesday night unsuccessfully sought to have the legislation restored to the order paper. In a first electronic vote TDs opposed the legislation by 72 votes to 70.
Mr Murphy then sought a roll-call vote and two additional people voted to make it 73 to 71.
