Abortion services will be free in Ireland, Simon Harris has confirmed

Abortion services will be free in Ireland, Simon Harris has confirmed.

The Minister for Health said that abortion will not cost anything in Ireland to ensure that everybody can avail of the services. The Irish Examiner reports that Harris confirmed the news today at the opening of a new primary care centre in Dublin saying that it was his "intention that the services will be free." He said:

"I've said from the start that I don't want cost to be a barrier, because if cost is a barrier you get into a situation where one of two things happen - you get abortion clinics to develop or you can see people having to continue to travel. "I want this to be provided as part of our healthcare system, our public healthcare system and part of our primary healthcare system."

This comes just one day after President Michael D Higgins signed the bill to repeal the eighth amendment, formally removing the law from the Irish constitution. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stated that legislation to legally allow abortion will be introduced in the first week of October. Ireland voted to repeal the eighth amendment of the constitution on May 25.