Abortion in Ireland is permitted in Ireland during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and later in cases where the pregnant woman's life or health is at risk and in cases of a fatal fetal abnormality.
Abortion services commenced on 1 January 2019 following its legalisation by the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. This replaced a restrictive regime which had been required by the Eighth Amendment adopted in 1983, which inserted a clause into the Constitution of Ireland recognising the equal right to life of the unborn and the mother. In 2018, the Thirty-sixth Amendment replaced this clause with one permitting legislation on the termination of pregnancies.
Abortion had been prohibited in Ireland by the UK Offences against the Person Act 1861. The Eighth Amendment was added to the Constitution by referendum in 1983, after concerns that laws prohibiting abortion could be found to be unconstitutional based on a right to privacy. In 1992, the Supreme Court held in the X Case that a thirteen-year-old girl who had become pregnant as a result of rape could be permitted to obtain an abortion in the state because there was a risk to her life from suicide. There were unsuccessful constitutional referendums in 1992 and 2002 that aimed to preclude such grounds for abortion in future cases. Between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018, abortion in Ireland was regulated by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, under which abortion was illegal unless it occurred as the result of a medical intervention performed to save the life of the woman.
In 2012, Irish abortion law received worldwide attention on the death of Savita Halappanavar, who had been denied an abortion while suffering a septic miscarriage. This increased calls to repeal the Eighth Amendment. The constitutional and legislative provisions were discussed at a Citizens' Assembly in 2016–17, and at an Oireachtas committee in 2017, both of which recommended substantial reform and framed the debate of the referendum in May 2018.
Current law Constitutional provisions
The current provision dates from the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, passed by referendum on 25 May 2018. For the previous constitutional provisions from 1983 to 2018, see the historical sections below.
Legislation The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 allows for a termination: under section 9, where there is a serious risk to the life of, or of serious harm to the health of, a pregnant woman, after examination by two medical practitioners; under section 10, in cases of emergency, where there is an immediate serious risk to the life of, or of serious harm to the health of a pregnant woman, after an examination by one medical practitioner; under section 11, where two medical practitioners are of the opinion formed in good faith that there is present a condition affecting the foetus that is likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before, or within 28 days of, birth; and under section 12, where there has been a certification that the pregnancy has not exceeded 12 weeks, and after a period of three days after this certification.
On commencement of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was repealed. Sections 7 and 8 of the 2013 Act provide for legal termination of pregnancies in cases of a risk of loss of life from physical illness, whereas section 9 provides for legal termination of pregnancies in cases of a risk of loss of life from suicide. Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 were repealed, and effectively superseded by the offence defined in section 22 of intentionally destroying unborn human life, punishable by fourteen years' imprisonment.
Irish abortions Legal abortions in Ireland Every year, the government publishes the number of notifications received of terminations performed under legislation. Those between 2014 and 2018 took place under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, with those taking place under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 being published from 2019: Year Number of notifications received 2014 26 2015 26 2016 25 2017 15 2018 32 2019 6,666 2020 6,577 2021 4,577 2022 8,156202310,033202410,852202510,600
Abortion pills
Between 2010 and 2012, 1,642 women ordered abortion pills over the Internet from Women on Web, and had an abortion at home, in Ireland. The pills were illegal in Ireland, and Customs occasionally seized shipments.
Traveling for an abortion Estimates as to the number of Irish women seeking abortions in Britain vary. Since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (Travel) in 1992, the right to travel for an abortion has had constitutional protection. In 2016, 3,265 Irish women were recorded as having had abortions in Great Britain. In some cases, women traveling do so with the assistance of the Abortion Support Network.
In 1980, Marian Finucane won the Prix Italia for a documentary on abortion; she interviewed a woman who was about to have an abortion, had travelled with her to England, been with her in the hospital and talked to her afterwards. In 2001, an estimated 7,000 women travelled abroad to obtain an abortion. Statistics showed that 4,149 Irish women had abortions in Britain in 2011. A study published in Social & Legal Studies found that in 2014 a total of 5,521 women gave Irish addresses to English and Welsh clinics that provided abortion services.Murray, C., 2016. The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act 2013: Suicide, dignity and the Irish discourse on abortion. Social & Legal Studies, 25(6), pp.667-698. In years leading up to 2018, some Irish women had abortions in the Netherlands.
The issue of traveling to the UK for an abortion was relevant for many Irish abortion cases, such as the X Case in 1992, C Case in 1997 and the case of Miss D in 2007, as well as in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. In response to the UNHRC decision in Mellet v Ireland (2016), the government gave Amanda Mellet €30,000 compensation, partially for being forced to travel.
Abortion for minority groups Despite the legalisation of abortion in Ireland following the 2018 repeal of the Eighth Amendment, access to services remains deeply unequal, with minority women bearing a disproportionate burden of the barriers that persist. Geographic inequity is a foundational problem: with only around one in ten GPs contracted to provide abortion services, and those providers concentrated in urban centres, women in rural areas — particularly asylum seekers living in isolated Direct Provision centres with poor public transport links — face significant practical obstacles.Kennedy S. Accessing abortion care in Ireland: meeting the needs of every woman. National Women’s Council of Ireland Report; 2021. Available from: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/15572_NWC_Abortion_Paper_WEB.pdf in a new window). These structural barriers compound existing experiences of discrimination: research by the National Traveller Women's Forum found that over two-thirds of service providers acknowledged that discrimination against Traveller women occurs in health settings. Migrant women and asylum seekers face a distinct set of compounding disadvantages, including the requirement for an Irish address and PPS number, difficulties securing translation services — which in documented cases extended waiting times by several days beyond the mandatory three-day period — and restrictions on travel arising from immigration or dependent status. That women from Black, Asian, and Chinese backgrounds with Irish addresses are significantly over-represented among those travelling to Britain for abortion care points to particular, unresolved barriers facing racialised minority women within the Irish system.Department of Health and Social Care UK (2020) National Statistics: Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2019. Published 11 June 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2019 Disabled women face additional layers of exclusion, including inaccessible information, physical and communication barriers, and an inadequate transport infrastructure).Abortion Rights Campaign & Disabled Women Ireland (2019) Submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women on mistreatment and violence against women during reproductive healthcare in Ireland and Northern Ireland. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ Women/SR/ReproductiveHealthCare/ARC%20DWI.pdf, p.6 As the geographer Sydney Calkin argues, a system genuinely designed with the most marginalised in mind — attending to barriers of transport, immigration status, and access to support — would look fundamentally different from the one currently in place.Calkin, S. (2020) ‘One year on, it’s clear that the new Irish abortion services have serious limitations’, The Conversation, 15 January. https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-its-clearthat-the-new-irish-abortion-services-have-serious-limitations-129491
History of abortion in Ireland Offences against the Person Act 1861 Under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, as amended by the Statute Law Revision Act 1892 and Statute Law Revision (No. 2) Act 1893, procuring a miscarriage was a criminal offence subject to penal servitude for life.
These provisions enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom remained in force in Irish law until they were repealed by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013.
Early twentieth century
Fears were expressed by politicians in 1929 of an increase in criminal abortions and infanticide following the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act which prohibited all appliances and substances for contraception; no exceptions whatsoever were made.Kennedy, Cottage to Creche, pp 159-161 Over 100 Irish women were dying annually from unsafe backstreet abortions in the 1930s.Jones, Marie Stopes in Ireland, pp 255–277