Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger has said Sinn Féin are “shifting to the right” following their controversial decision to abstain on an abortion vote.
On Wednesday (13th), the Dáil heard a Social Democrats motion which, the party argued, would have honoured the results of the 2018 referendum to liberalise Ireland’s abortion laws.
Party leader Holly Cairns said, “the mandatory three-day waiting period continues to create unnecessary distress and delay despite having absolutely no medical basis,” and that particular issue was not explained to voters in the 2018 referendum.
Cairns said, “these issues were all identified in the government’s expert review of the law three years ago. Three years later, women are still waiting.”
Despite the government parties offering a free vote to TDs on this particular issue, the Soc Dems’ proposal was defeated by 85 votes to 30.
TDs from the Soc Dems, Labour, People Before Profit and the Greens all voted in favour of it (as did Fine Gael TDs Grace Boland and Barry Ward, Fianna Fáil TD Catherine Ardagh and government-supporting independent Barry Heneghan), but Sinn Féin’s decision to abstain has been criticised in progressive quarters.
Had all 36 of Sinn Féin’s present TDs voted for the bill, it would have failed by 85 votes to 66, but the principle of abstaining has irked progressive politicians.
Coppinger, who previously remarked that Sinn Féin did not take the issue of abortion rights seriously until Repeal, said that the party’s decision to abstain reflects the latest move in their rightward drift on social issues.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson, David Culinane, defended the party’s stance on this particular issue, claiming that they had their own specific piece of legislation dedicated to abolishing the three-day wait, but to Coppinger, the principle of Sinn Féin abstaining on a social issue like this (and not working with other parties of the left) has confirmed their rightward shift.
She called Cullinane “arrogant” for saying that the party could not support the bill, but remarked she was “not surprised.”
She quipped it was “great” that Sinn Féin had one “eight years after Repeal,” further poking holes in Sinn Féin’s historic ambivalence towards reproductive rights.
“Sinn Féin would say it has its bill, and they did not need to vote for this one. It is cynical. It is conservative. It is a shift to the right by Sinn Féin,” she stated.
The Solidarity TD noted that in the previous Dáil, Sinn Féin backed a bill by then-TD Bríd Smith, which also called on the government to drop the mandatory three-day wait.
Coppinger claimed that Sinn Féin are “responding to the far-right and other individuals who have criticised it on the vote recently.”
“Now, it is circling the wagons, and women’s rights have to pay the price. It really is shocking, but it is good to bring clarity for people as to where parties stand.”
“Stop pretending that it (the existing legislation) is protecting women,” she said.
In December 2024, when Mary Lou McDonald attempted to gain Dáil support to become Taoiseach, Coppinger abstained from the vote, citing Sinn Féin’s “drift to the right” during that election campaign.
Local Labour TD Marie Sherlock praised the Social Democrats for bringing the motion forward, with the Labour health spokesperson stating, “when two thirds of all voters cast their vote in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment eight years ago, I passionately believed that they were not voting for a situation that would continue to see over 1,500 women travelling for healthcare in subsequent years.
The Dublin Central TD said, “they were not voting for the continued criminalisation of healthcare professionals or for couples with much-wanted pregnancies being forced into impossible circumstances due to the uncertain 28-day rule.”
She noted that in 2023, the latest available data from the UK Department of Health and Social Care showed that 240 women from Ireland travelled to the UK for termination of pregnancy.
“I believe the people in this country voted to stop exporting our Irish problem abroad. We voted to ensure that women could get the necessary healthcare here, and yet they are still having to travel. They are having to travel because of very specific difficulties and flaws within the legislation,” she said.