Watching People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy back-pedal following the defeat of his abortion motion in the Dáil just before Christmas has been a fascinating spectacle.

Now that the reality of his abortion bill is widely understood – that it would allow abortion on request right up to the moment of birth – Deputy Murphy has been obscuring the bill’s intent with claims of “misinformation” and carefully chosen healthcare rhetoric.

If Deputy Murphy believes unborn babies are entitled to any legal protection, now is the time for him to say so – and to state clearly where he draws that line. In more than a decade in the Dáil, he has never identified circumstances in which he believes unborn babies should be protected.

Anyone who has read his latest bill can see it explicitly calls for the decriminalisation of abortion, removing any remaining legal protection for the unborn child. Thankfully, a majority of TDs were not fooled and voted to stop it progressing by 73 to 71 votes, just before the Christmas break.

While the result was much closer than we would have liked, it’s encouraging that so many TDs turned up and voted the right way, extending well beyond the core pro-life group of public representatives we can always depend on in such votes.

The misjudgement by Paul Murphy and People Before Profit–Solidarity of the current political mood, which allowed the pro-life side to secure its first Dáil victory in a long time, will have reverberations leading into 2026. These must be seized upon to help force a shift in government policy away from promoting abortion and toward prioritising alternatives.

Given that over 60,000 abortions have occurred in Ireland since 2019, our collective focus should be on reducing abortion numbers – not on pushing legislation that would guarantee further increases and throw the door open to late-term abortions, resulting in a disturbing escalation in disregard for human life.