The Protection Of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013

The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 ("the Bill") was published on 13 June 2013 amidst much controversy. The Bill seeks to give statutory effect to the 1992 decision of the Supreme Court in Attorney General v X & Others ("the X Case") and thereby clarify the law relating to termination of a pregnancy in Ireland.

Termination of a pregnancy and the Irish Constitution

The right to life of the unborn is enshrined in Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution and it operates to protect the fetus from the time of implantation in the womb until birth[1]. However, there are exceptional circumstances in which this right to life can lawfully be infringed through a termination of the pregnancy. In the X Case, the Supreme Court set out a two pronged test stating that the life of the unborn can be terminated where there exists, as a matter of probability, (1) a real and substantial risk to the life, as opposed to the health, of the mother which need not be inevitable or immediate and (2) that the risk in question is avoidable only by terminating the pregnancy. A termination is only permissible where both limbs of the test are satisfied. In 2010, Ireland was found to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights for failing to provide an effective and accessible method for women to determine if they are entitled to have a...