Hayes “angry and furious” at Fine Gael and Sinn Féin over abortion vote

Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes has weighed in on Sinn Féin’s controversial decision to abstain on a Dáil vote surrounding abortion rights.

On May 14th, the Social Democrats introduced a motion which would have relaxed rules surrounding the three-day waiting period for women seeking an abortion.

The government parties allowed a free vote on it, but the bill was defeated by 84 votes to 30.

The Social Democrats, Labour, People Before Profit, the Greens and three government TDs (Catherine Ardagh, Barry Ward and Grace Boland) voted in favour of it, as did independents Barry Heneghan and Seamus Healy.

Sinn Féin made the controversial move to abstain on the vote entirely, claiming that the party had similar legislation in the work, and doubted the legality of what the Soc Dems were proposing.

Hayes, TD for Dublin Bay South, questioned why Sinn Féin chose not to work with their would-be coalition partners of the left on such an important social issue.

Hayes speculated that the party did want to give off the appearance of being “woke” ahead of the by-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West.

In a blog post, Hayes mused, “we know that even Sinn Féin, as a self-proclaimed socialist party of the left, have seen a soft bleed to the nationalist right.”

“I think it’s safe to say they were all worried in the context of the by-election campaigns of the signal they might send to right-wing voters who want to halt the ‘woke agenda’”.

Hayes also noted that Sinn Féin had no mention of abortion reform or improvements to abortion access in its manifesto at the last general election; “maybe I and others were expecting too much from them,” he remarked.

Hayes pointed out that in the previous Dáil, Sinn Féin voted to support a bill by former People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith on the exact same issue.

Hayes’ implication that Sinn Féin have gone conservative on social issues was outright stated by Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger in the Dáil, with the Dublin West TD outright criticising Sinn Féin’s “drift to the right” on social issues.

Hayes praised Dublin South Central TD Catherine Ardagh for being the only Fianna Fáil TD to vote in favour of the bill, as well as Fine Gael TDs Grace Boland and Barry Ward.

“I think it is also important to acknowledge the people who voted for the Bill who didn’t have to: their votes were valuable and needed, and should be applauded,” he said.

Hayes stated that Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond would have voted for the bill had he been present in the Dáil, but missed the vote as he was away from the Dáil on that particular day.

The Soc Dems TD said that overall, he was “surprised” that Fine Gael had changed their mind on the topic.

He noted that when Simon Harris was Minister for Health in 2018, he was the Minister responsible for the mandatory three-day wait to become law.

Hayes took specific umbrage with Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill for her contribution to the debate, stating that she misrepresented what the Soc Dems were proposing.

He said he was “angry” at the Minister for being opposed to legislation which would have changed the 28-day viability requirement for fatal fetal abnormalities.

“We know that there are women travelling because doctors did not want to have to make a distinction on the viability of a fetus with a severe abnormality. We have heard from those women repeatedly. It was absolutely imperative that we legislated so women like that did not have to travel, and they could get the care they needed at home in Ireland.”

“Anything else, in my view, abdicated our responsibilities to women and their families at the most difficult times in their lives; I am really angry that the Minister has not sought to deal with it in any way,” he said.

Since this article appeared in print (the edition of the Southside People that this article originally appeared in went to print on May 22, the weekend when Sinn Féin lost to the Social Democrats in Dublin Central), it appears that Hayes’ analysis of Sinn Féin was accurate.