Greens pledge free bi-annual gynecological check ups for women, remove 3 day wait for terminations

The Green Party today pledged to build on its record of prioritising women’s health in Government, by introducing free gynecological check ups for women between the ages of 16 and 40. The Party will also seek to amend legislation relating to terminations of pregnancy to remove the three day waiting period that has to be observed before a woman can access the necessary medication and has been shown to act as a significant barrier to the provision of timely care.

Green Party Director of Elections, Senator Pauline O’Reilly said today: 

“The Green Party prioritised and delivered on huge improvements to women’s health in Ireland over the past four and a half years and we will continue to do this if we are in Government again.

“We ensured that the free contraception scheme for women was included in the Programme for Government in 2021 and pushed for it to be expanded to new age cohorts year after year in every Budget. I led on the issues of legislating for safe access zones and pushed for the introduction of free HRT for all women.

“But the Green Party wants to go further again if we are in Government again. We will roll out a programme of free gynecological check ups for women aged between 16 and 40 over the term of the next Government. These check ups would have a huge beneficial impact for women, allowing early diagnoses of conditions that can impact fertility and other conditions that benefit from early intervention. But the programme would also have a positive impact on the health service overall with savings to be made through preventative and early interventions.

“We also championed women’s reproductive rights over the past four and a half years and will continue to do so if we are part of the next Government. We will work to amend the current legislation governing termination of pregnancy to remove the three day waiting period which has been identified as being a huge barrier to women receiving timely care, and we will also decriminalise providers of reproductive healthcare services as the threat of criminalisation has a chilling effect on their ability to provide adequate services for women across the country.”