“We Did Not Consult Them”: ICGP Challenged Over Push to Scrap Three-Day Abortion Wait

21.09.2026

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) has faced questions over how it arrived at its position supporting the removal of Ireland’s mandatory three-day waiting period before abortion.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, ICGP representatives argued that the legally mandated waiting period should be removed, with any period of reflection instead determined by a woman in consultation with her doctor.

But Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín challenged Dr Diarmuid Quinlan, Medical Director of the ICGP, on whether the organisation had actually consulted the people whose views it purported to represent.

“You are here as a representative organisation, and we don’t know if your views represent your members,” Tóibín said, before asking what evidence the College had that its position reflected its membership.

Dr Quinlan pointed to the education the ICGP provides to GPs on termination of pregnancy. However, when Tóibín pressed specifically on consultation, Dr Quinlan acknowledged: “We did not consult with them about this.”

Tóibín also questioned whether the College had consulted mothers who attended an initial abortion consultation but did not subsequently proceed with an abortion. The ICGP acknowledged that it had not consulted such women.

The exchange raises an obvious question: how can a representative organisation confidently advance such a significant policy position without first establishing the views of its own membership?

The controversy is particularly significant given that other TDs at the hearing also questioned whether the ICGP position reflected GPs generally, with some citing doctors who support retaining the three-day period.

For a debate involving an irreversible decision and the lives of unborn children, the voices of GPs and women who changed their minds deserve to be heard.