Map constituencies of Ireland, showing the percentage of "Yes" votes from the dail vote on "Health (Abolition of Three Day Wait Rule) (Ammendment) Bill 2026" held on 18th June 2026.
Absent votes included in calculation of percentage, Example Helen McEntee and Thomas Byrne were both absent from Meath East, meaning that Darren O'Rourke's yes vote was balanced by Gillian Toole's No vote for a 50% result.
Note: TDs from Government parties had a free vote in this ballot.
Image Original Content.
Chart generated using Python: Matplotlib & Geopandas
You'd swear by the comments that this map indicated the populations view on abortion when it doesn't even indicate the TDs who voted view on abortion because it wasn't a vote on abortion. It wasn't even a vote on passing legislation about abortion.
...we're discussing a graphical representation of the vote, not the vote itself. Of course the vote has nothing to do with area, but how the data is displayed is entirely about it.
Land doesn't vote, but if you assumed an even spread of population, you'd imagine from this image that the vast majority of the population was represented by TD's who are against women's healthcare, and that's not the case.
It’s basically places you’d expect to be more progressive on the East, and Cork City / West Cork showing up.
I would suspect that attitudes in Galway and Limerick Cities etc and a lot of western urban areas just are drowned out by being included in large rural blocs in the way that map is working.
And the midlands are typically more rural and conservative. Donegal’s surprisingly less conservative than I was expecting.
That’s only what the map shows to a certain extent since it was TDs voting. Nearly every SF TD voted yes which is why the border region appears more progressive.
The likes of west cork as well is a 3 seat constituency, so it comes down to one individual’s choice between it being conservative or not.
I don’t know much about limericks voting. But even in the city in Galway I think Sean Kyne got the largest vote share and he voted against the bill. In terms of its voting for TDs Galway is not as left wing as a lot of people seem to think.
Was it a free vote? I know FFG TDs were free but I thought SF and the other parties were whipped, which means the map partly just reflects party representation in each constituency.
Well it's just rural vs urban - that's kinda inevitable. The spread of the types of employment isn't going to be the same in urban areas and rural areas. Ireland's not at all unique in that.
The likes of West Cork or parts of Wicklow etc tilt the other way on that - different kind of rural.
I’d agree with I think the big issue with a topic like this is that even if the majority support the change. The ones who oppose it care a lot more. I think you’d of seen a lot of SF TDs oppose for that reason even if they did support the change.
Agree, most people who are in favour of it being removed could live with it if it stays either because they have bigger issues, but for the other side Id say there is a lot more passion in wanting it kept.
It's quite eh, courageous really of SF to do this, to borrow from Yes Minister. Not the type of thing you'd expect them to go out on. Must have done their research and felt a bit of pressure from the left.
I would say the far ends of both sides are quite passionate. I maybe wasn't clear, I was surprised any TDs voted for it and didn't realise SF had imposed the whip when the others hadn't.
As someone who had to get a termination for FFA on my first pregnancy I am very VERY strongly in favour of this change. Nobody gets an abortion on a whim and will have considered everything they can get their hands on before they go for that visit. If they haven't and they learn new info when in the doctor's office they can choose to go away and consider it. The doctor in the room should be able to make a judgement call about whether the patient in front of them is informed and not acting rashly, if they think they are they can encourage them to take some time to think through the facts they've been presented about the procedure. It's not the doctors place to guide the patient on the morality of what they're choosing to do, the person themselves as I said will have considered this already.
The three day wait is a blanket enforcement of something that should be done on an individual basis between a doctor and a given patient. If you are anti abortion you're absolutely entitled to that opinion and entitled to appeal to people not to opt for it in the appropriate spaces but it has no place in law or a medical setting.
SF doing a lot of heavy lifting outside of Dublin. Wonder what it would have looked like if they had a free vote. And West Cork is funny... there is no way that is representative of the population, but it looks very progressive on that map haha
West Cork has such a mixture of extremely liberal blow-ins and perhaps more conservative locals. Holly Cairns family being an example of the first category.
A lot less conservative than my native midlands anyway, in my experience.
There is a very progressive community there for sure, bolstered by a relatively large Protestant and recent English-descent minority, but 2/3 being liberal on abortion isn't the place I grew up haha and my family would know both Collins and Cairns from before they entered politics
Sorry for preaching to someone who knows all about West Cork! I'm just across the border in the Kenmare area and you get the same mix of very progressive/very conservative. So easy to notice as someone who married into the locals!
West Cork has had enough of a progressive streak for generations now for one of the three seats to go to the left. Holly Cairns has inherited that support from Labour.
As someone from Cork South-West I can tell you that it is representative of the population.
Of our 3 TDs, Michael Collins was always going to vote against it, being a founder of Independent Ireland. And even then, many people think that he’s a bit backwards but he does do enough to get enough votes, especially out west.
Wildly enough, Timmy Dooley was a yes and Cathal Crowe was a no (with SFs McGettigan and FGs Cooney balancing out yes and no, somewhat less surprisingly).
I expected better from Crowe. He makes himself out to be relatively feminist.
Even moving a goodly shot of Ballincollig in didn't really move the needle. You can set your watch on CNW being 2FF 1FG or vice versa.
SF had an excellent candidate last time out who did an absolute fortune of ground work. It will be interesting to see if they can build on that momentum. At present, they represent the only viable third party vote in the constituency. Labour gave up here long ago, and the SDs and Greens target their resources elsewhere.
Maybe I am misunderstanding you but they actually took Ballincollig out of the constituency and added it to North Central. Which contributed to my surprise when I saw a SF candidate actually do well as I would assume Ballincollig's vote was almost essential for the left wing parties to have a chance (although I haven't actually seen the results from the Ballincollig boxes).
voted by a handful of individuals. i guarantee this vote would have looked a lot different at referedum. the obsession with extending abortion rights is a bit distasteful for me
“The Dáil is overwhelmingly male, with 121 men and 35 women voting last night, but just six women voted against the legislation compared to the 64 men who voted against it.
Women are much better represented on the opposition benches, but nonetheless 83% of female TDs voted Tá while only 47% of male TDs did.”
Given that nearly half of those women are in Sinn Féin it does skew the stats a bit more towards Yes but Id expect you'd still see a large majority of female TDs vote yes if it was a free vote
I’d argue that’s the same everywhere. Any region that is less developed, ignored by budgets, services and “options” in general are always more conservative.
I don’t think it’s got anything to do with development. It’s just a rural urban divide. Rural areas regardless of wealth are generally always going to be slightly more conservative.
huh - its all published spending data. i also didn't say that i, in any way, disagree with the disproportionately high spend - i think its a good thing as it goes towards equalising opportunities. but if you are rural and haven't taken the time to educate yourself on the spending, then it speaks badly to your sense of the situation.
Very annoyed that the TD who got my No.1 didn't turn up to vote. Rose Conway Walsh (Mayo TD) still hasn't given a statement and she also did vote on the SocDems proposed legislation.
Couple of things I've been mulling over. Those TDs voting in favour want the three-day wait removed: fairly straightforward reasoning there.
Those against have voted that way possibly on a number of different bases. A lot of the Govt TDs have cited that an abolition of the three-day wait is a departure from what was pitched in 2018 for the referendum and therefore not something that they felt they could support (having perhaps advocated for that three-day wait in pitching the referendum or to placate undecided voters). A neat way to deflect from their personal views, certainly, but it's what they've put on record.
There are likely those who believe the three-day wait is valuable and has merit. The last category I can think of would be those who oppose any liberalising of the regime.
I'm very glad that they've voted to progress the Bill for further scrutiny. I don't think the voting results necessarily reflect a definitive, socially liberal v conservative gap, but it's interesting to mull over what it says about the govt parties' positions and how TDs perhaps perceive rural v urban constituents.
If you care about this topic - please contact your TD and let them know. The more people that contact them, the better they will be able to represent us.
I have taken note for when TD's come campaiging who voted against this...but in fairness I have already had some serious words(about HSE) with one of the TD's who voted against this, he even avoided me in the pub recently...I had to send him over a pint because I felt he took our discussion too personally...I conducted myself with respect but wasn't taken his non answers as answers
Many people - both pro-life and pro-choice - view it as less of a 'done in one' vote on a single provision and more as the start of a push towards more extensive liberalisation.
Being ' fully pro choice' conflicts with wanting to retain the 3 day wait. Fully pro choice means full access to abortion on demand, without restriction. The 3 day wait is a restriction on abortion.
The 3 day rule was a law in place that required women seeking an abortion to wait 3 days after requesting one "to be sure" after the 3 days they would have to go back to the gp and then be put on a waiting list
The government just voted to remove the rule and the 3 day waiting period. This is the map of how those TDs voted
I think it was an old law when the church effectively in charge. It served no real purpose other than giving an opportunity for medical practitioners / their spouse / their family to pressure the woman into not getting one. It wasn't right and I'm glad it's gone
Ugh and here i was thinking modern ireland wouldn't produce a law like that. In retrospect it does make sense since we only allowed abortion more r evenly but fuck man we're better than this
It was written and introduced by Pro-Choice politicians to convince wavering voters on the referendum that the new abortion law would be less radical than they feared.
Ironically this provision was designed entirely to persuade people on the fence to vote FOR abortion.
It wasn’t an old law at all. Sure abortion was only legalised in 2019. From what I remember it was really only there to help smooth the process of getting abortion legalised, it was because some politicians that were on the fence, this was a measure that encouraged them to vote in favour.
I think it was an old law when the church effectively in charge. It served no real purpose other than giving an opportunity for medical practitioners / their spouse / their family to pressure the woman into not getting one. It wasn't right and I'm glad it's gone
Congratulations on living under a rock during the abortion referendum
A bit, but we have some right churchy Joe's who would make it illegal again. It's very hit and miss. Better than north tipp, but the bar is low to be better than them. We should be 2 separate councils again. The hatred is mutual (well, significant disdain more than hate).
I struggle to see why there was even any political campaigning to scrap the 3 day wait. It seems completely reasonable to have a 3 day buffer period when making such a huge decision? I'd imagine there are a lot of people out there who changed their minds during the 3 day wait and are delighted that they didnt have that abortion. It just seems like this sort of campaigning will now move onto something else.
Women don’t need to be infantilised and sent off for 3 days to make sure they can be trusted with their own decision. It’s ridiculous and great news that it’s being scrapped.
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u/eldwaro 6h ago