The Social Democrats abortion reform Bill was defeated in the Dáil on Wednesday by 85 votes to 30, with 36 abstentions, including all Sinn Féin TDs.
Government TDs had a free vote on the Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill as a matter of conscience.
While a majority rejected the legislation, Fine Gael TDs Grace Boland and Barry Ward voted in favour of moving the Bill to committee stage, as did Fianna Fáil TD Catherine Ardagh.
Fianna Fáil Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless, Minister of State Chris O’Sullivan and TD Paul McAuliffe abstained.
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Earlier, before the vote, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns had described Government and Sinn Féin comments rejecting her abortion reform Bill as “shocking and disappointing”.
The Labour Party, People Before Profit, the Green Party and Independent TD Barry Heneghan supported the legislation but Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has rejected it as did Independent Ireland and other Independent TDs.
The Bill sought to provide clarity on terminations for medical reasons, including fatal foetal abnormalities, Cairns said.
It would have removed an existing three-day waiting period after a first GP consultation and end the criminalisation of doctors who face jail terms of up to 14 years.
However, Carroll MacNeill highlighted five areas of difficulty with the legislation and Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said it lacked “democratic legitimacy”.
Introducing her Bill, the Cork South-West TD had said: “Many women who receive devastating diagnoses of fatal foetal conditions, often after the 20-week scan, are still forced to make that long, lonely journey to the UK.
“The mandatory three-day waiting period continues to create unnecessary distress and delay despite having absolutely no medical basis. The continued criminalisation of abortion creates fear among clinicians and stigma for patients.
“These issues were all identified in the Government’s own expert review of the law three years ago, yet three years later women are still waiting.”
[ Government flags ‘difficulties’ with Social Democrats’ abortion reformsOpens in new window ]
The independent review, published in 2023, recommended ending the required three-day waiting period and called for new ministerial guidelines regarding fatal foetal abnormalities.
Terminations can be carried out where there is a risk to the life, or of serious harm, to the pregnant woman, or where there is a condition present that is likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before or within 28 days of birth. The Bill proposes the removal of the 28-day limit.
Cairns pointed to the World Health Organisation, which is “clear that abortion should be fully decriminalised and treated as healthcare”.
The Minister said the proposal on the three-day waiting period after a first medical consultation was the “least problematic” issue. “The HSE has advised that the current model of care is safe and that it is reliant on it, but that could change were the Oireachtas to make changes in legislation.”
The issue of fatal foetal abnormality was the most important, she said. The limit was set at 28 days because where a condition exists resulting in the death of a live-born infant, “that death nearly always occurs in the first 28 days”. Of about 190 deaths last year, about 150 of them were within that period, she said.
“If a baby can live for two, three or four months, I do not understand how we would pick a timeline for that.”
The Minister also disputed a general figure given of 240 women travelling because of fatal foetal abnormality, saying it was a “much smaller number”.
She also opposed the provision for the decriminalisation as a “blanket” measure for “any doctor”.
The Sinn Féin spokesman also opposed the decriminalisation of doctors.
Cullinane, who last week introduced legislation specifically to remove the three-day mandatory “cooling off” period, said his party did not support the Social Democrats on fatal foetal abnormality.
“This amendment is not grounded in the statutory review of the Act” and the proposed definition in the Bill “is untested and circular”.
Describing the Bill as having “no democratic legitimacy, he said: “It proposes to significantly undermine the legal framework that was put before the people.”
