Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has been appointed as the new Minister for Health in the newly formed cabinet headed by Micheál Martin.
On the abortion issue, Deputy Carroll MacNeill has been unambiguous in her support for the ‘pro-choice’ side and supported the Yes vote in 2018. She has further voted in favour of measures like the euthanasia bill proposed by Gino Kenny in 2021 and voted with the government to block foetal pain relief for unborn babies, also in 2021.
She voted with the government against the private members’ bill introduced by People Before Profit to further liberalise the abortion law in May 2023. Several members of the government defected and voted in favour of that Bill at the time, such as all of the Green Party and her Fine Gael colleague Deputy Neal Richmond. Then-Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly voted to ‘abstain’ on the extreme Bill, which even he admitted went far beyond the recommendations of the three-year review. It is notable that Deputy Carroll MacNeill did not take a similar path of deliberately abstaining to make a subtly sympathetic point.
Since 2018, she has occasionally touched on topics related to abortion in her public statements and questions. She asked then-Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, in late June 2021 whether the policy allowing for telemedicine abortion would be reviewed after the Covid-19 restrictions were declared over. He confirmed to her at the time that it would be reviewed. Ultimately telemedicine was officially made permanent in late 2023, despite concerns surrounding physical health and safeguarding.
In an April 2024 interview with TheJournal.ie Deputy Carroll MacNeill was asked about her views on abortion and a contemporaneous debate being held in the Dáil raised by Ivana Bacik in response to the RTÉ Investigates programme on abortion. Deputy Carroll MacNeill said she found the debate “very difficult” to listen to due to her own “difficult experiences” with pregnancies, including miscarriage. She said, “There really is nothing more intimate than a woman in a maternity hospital, at any stage of her pregnancy, with her baby or her unborn baby.”
According to TheJournal.ie, Deputy Carroll MacNeill called “for recommendations contained in a report by barrister Marie O’Shea, who reviewed the operation of the 2018 Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, to be implemented”, but it did not directly quote her saying this.
When queried specifically on issues like the three-day waiting period, Deputy Carroll MacNeill did not appear to give a firm commitment to repealing it or not. Instead, she discussed the need for a broad conversation about pregnancy and how women are treated. She said “it’s hard to get to a compassionate outcome with a divisive debate. So whatever process or whatever length of time, I know where my endpoint is”, but did not specify what her endpoint was. “I’m not sure that we need to go through too much division to get there. And if it takes a little longer that’s not the worst thing,” she said. Whilst her position is obviously a pro-choice one, her answer implies she is not in a rush to implement the further liberalisation she presumably wants to see.
MacNeill is widely regarded as a “rising star” in Fine Gael and a potential future leader. She will be part of a government reliant on support from several independent TDs who are personally pro-life, including the new ’super junior’ ministers.
To her credit, she is a person of substance. During the 2021 pain relief bill, she engaged with the arguments in a more thoughtful way than others although we would still regard her conclusions as misguided (leading her to oppose the measure).
Hopefully as the newly appointed Minister for Health, she will recognise the need to focus on finding ways to reduce Ireland’s soaring abortion rate rather than giving effect to the extremely flawed recommendations of the three-year review.
The Pro Life Campaign for its part will continue to draw attention to the horrifying effects of the new abortion law and the need for the incoming government to reflect on this reality and work to reduce the number of abortions taking place instead of further expanding access to abortion in Ireland.
Sincere thanks for for such a detailed comment.
God bless the work.
May God in His infinite mercy, help us realise that we have no “ right” to kill another human being, either before or after birth, and despite what justice Frank Clarke may either think or believe, life begins at conception.
Balanced well researched profile of new minister for Health.
While many politicians will go with the flow of public opinion of the day, there is some promise with this minister, given her tendency to reflect rather than recite dogma.
Sorry to be negative. I am anti abortion and campaigned against it in 2018. However the government will never want to reduce the abortion rate, I do not think that the majority of the population who voted for it care either. In their eyes it is all about a woman,,’s right to choose and women’s “healthcare”. I will always attend the march for life as I see it as bearing witness to life and maybe some cons ciences in the general public will be pricked.
Sorry to be so cynical most of the people I know voted for abortion and are not interested in any other view than it being a ‘ right’. A lot of the problem with pro abortion opinion is spiritual bankruptcy.
Ireland has truly gone to the dogs naming a woman like pro abortion Carroll McNeill as Minister for Health. Let’s hope The Pro Life campaign gets further support in the fight against the slaughter of unborn children
Subjects such as abortion, which are heavily emotionally laden, should never be allowed to be decided on the emotional trauma which can be suffered by mothers having an ‘unplanned ‘ pregnancy. There is another human being involved whose life is defenceless in face of laws which disregard his right to life. It is arrogance on the part of the State, or of a majority vote of the electorate., to presume to have this power.
The opening of our laws to abortion began with the flawed majority judgement of the Supreme Court in the ”X” case (1992)
The one dissenting vote in that judgement, by Justice Anthony Hederman, was the correct one, according to the wording of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution at that time.
He wrote that the X person had a choice: to kill herself, or not to kill herself, but the baby was given no choice. The baby’s “Equal right to life” under the Constitution was not vindicated by the Supreme Court’s majority vote at that time.
I believe that vote was greatly influenced by the campaign whipped up by pro-abortion organisations in the community, backed by the biased media.