8th December 2025
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News Release
8th December 2025

PLC challenges IFPA claim that three-day wait lacks scientific basis

The Pro Life Campaign has said that the Irish Family Planning Association’s claim that there is “no scientific support” for the three-day waiting period before an abortion is not borne out by the evidence, which the PLC argues shows that a notable proportion of women change their minds and decide not to proceed with an abortion.
The IFPA presented its claim in their 2024 annual report, saying that 98% of their clients went on to access abortion services after the waiting period.
Commenting on the IFPA claims, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, Eilís Mulroy said: “While the IFPA claims that less than 2% of its clients do not proceed with abortion after the three-day wait, national statistics suggest a much higher figure - around 9% in 2024 did not go through with an abortion.
“Out of 12,641 first consultations, only 10,441 returned for the second visit after the three day wait. After excluding miscarriages and hospital-based abortions based on IFPA percentages for these groups, more than 1,000 women appear not to have returned and instead continued their pregnancies. This amounts to an estimated 8.5% of women nationally, far above the IFPA’s 1.6%. The IFPA is the most hard-line abortion advocacy group in the country. Perhaps that has something to do with the outcomes it is getting? This is reflected in their 2024 report which is almost entirely preoccupied with abortion and has barely anything to say about other options when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
“Groups like the IFPA which receive millions of taxpayers’ money from the government need to be challenged more for positioning themselves as objective specialists while, at the same time, advancing a highly vocal political agenda. The government needs to scrutinise more carefully the influence and access granted to organisations like the IFPA in unplanned-pregnancy policy and make a point of welcoming other voices to the decision making table to produce a more balanced outcome.
“The Oireachtas Health Committee towards the end of the last Dáil examined the three-day waiting period and rightly expressed concerns with how the Three Year Review recommended removing this waiting period without providing proper evidence to back up its call. The committee described the recommendation as ‘a substantial departure from the proposals presented to the electorate before the May 2018 referendum.’
“The three-day wait is a life-saving feature of the current law and it should be retained at all cost. The fact that 10,852 babies lost their lives through abortion in 2024 is a national tragedy. As a society, we need to do everything we can to reduce these numbers, not take the advice of the IFPA, which would lead inevitably to the numbers continuing to soar.”

ENDS

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