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The Government has today agreed to the publication of the Protection of Human Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013.

The legislation will now be debated in the Oireachtas. It is the intention of the Government to have the legislation enacted into law before the summer recess.

On the 30th of April the Cabinet agreed the Heads of the Bill. The published legislation is fully reflective of the Heads of the Bill with certain refinements and certain extra safeguards.

Between the publication of the Heads of the Bill and publication of the Bill itself, the Oireachtas Health Committee held hearings into the legislation and that process has also informed the Bill agreed today at Cabinet.

This Bill restates the general prohibition on abortion in Ireland. Its only aim is to place a legal framework on an already existing narrow provision – set down by the Supreme Court in 1992. Based on the tight parameters in which it is set, the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 outlines the circumstances in which a rare but life-saving termination may be permitted.

The bill is to provide legal clarity, by way of legislation and regulations, of the circumstances where a medical termination is permissible where there is real and substantial risk to the life – as opposed to the health – of a woman as a result of a pregnancy. This is as required by the European Court of Human Rights Judgement in the ABC case.

Health Minister James Reilly said

...todays’ decision by cabinet, approving the Bill, comes in the wake of extensive work between the Government partners. We have produced what we consider to be a balanced set of proposals aimed at meeting the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights. I believe that pregnant women and their doctors will now benefit from the far greater legal clarity this Bill will bring.

Tánaiste & Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore said:

If this Bill is passed, every one of the tens of thousands of pregnant women who are admitted to hospital every year will know that any action which may be needed to save her life in an emergency will be taken. If this Bill is passed there will be no need for worry, no reason for doubt on the part of the woman, her family or the medical professionals concerned.

It is twenty one years since the Supreme Court decided the X Case. In the intervening time a whole generation of women and their medical advisors has been in a legal limbo. I have long argued that it is high time for Government to do its duty and bring an end to this legal limbo. This Government will do just that.

For most women, and their partners, the birth of their child is an occasion of great joy. Sadly, in a very small number of cases that joy turns to nightmare as the life of the woman is threatened and the termination of pregnancy is necessary in order to save her life. This is a hugely sensitive issue and the debate heretofore has been carried on, in the most part, in a responsible and respectful way. I hope very much that it will continue in that vein.

The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 remains strictly within the parameters of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Judgement in the X case. It covers existing constitutional rights only – it will not create any new rights.

The medical termination of pregnancy can only be legally permitted in situations where each of the doctors involved in the assessment have unanimously certified that it is the only treatment that will save the woman’s life by averting the real and substantial risk to her life.

The bill is intended to give the greatest possible clarity to women and to their doctors as to the services legally available and the process by which access to such services can be evaluated.]