Dáil to debate bill aimed at reducing abortion penalty to €1 fine

A bill will come before the Dáil tomorrow aimed at reducing the penalty for having an abortion to a €1 fine.

Currently women who have a termination face a potential 14-year jail term.

The People Before Profit Bill can't decriminalise abortion, but would reduce the penalty to a nominal fine.

TD Brid Smith is bringing forward the bill and says she was trying to find a way to decriminalise abortion, but was blocked by the 8th amendment.

“We are not allowed to decriminalise it fully,” said Smith.

“In other words, should anyone procure an abortion, there has to be a penalty. That’s what the legal advice in the parliament has been saying to us: ‘Brid, you have to have a penalty. You can’t fully decriminalise it’.

“I think reducing that penalty to a peppercorn fine of €1 will remove the chill factor from medical practitioners, and it’ll certainly remove the fear factor from young women.”