[6] Under section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, unlawfully attempting to procure a miscarriage was a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment.
[10] The state had a year to respond officially, and after the 2011 general election, the coalition government decided in December 2011 to appoint an expert group to advise on how to implement the ECtHR judgment.
[11][12][13] On the day the story broke, the Irish government confirmed that the expert group handed in its report to the Department of Health the night before.
Those criteria differed in three scenarios: The physicians' diagnosis had to be "an opinion formed in good faith which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable".
[22] Medical personnel with conscience objections to abortion were not required to participate in terminations, but had to transfer care of a patient in such cases.
[34][35] The Act defined the "unborn" whose life is protected as existing from implantation in the uterus until "complete emergence ... from the body of the woman".
In January 2013, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children held three days of discussions with interest groups on the government's plans.
Journalist Stephen Collins commented that it was an unusual and positive step to hold such a discussion before the drafting of a bill by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to Government.
[50] In May 2013, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children held three days of discussions on the draft bill with healthcare and legal professionals.
[55][56] Lucinda Creighton was likewise expelled on 11 July for voting against the bill's report stage;[57] she was also forced to resign as Minister of State for European Affairs.
[61] Six pro-choice technical group TDs voted against the bill: Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Richard Boyd Barrett, Mick Wallace, Joe Higgins and Luke 'Ming' Flanagan.
[63] Boyd Barrett criticised the exclusion of fatal foetal abnormality in the bill, which he said “will force women whose pregnancies will inevitably end in tragedy to go full term or travel overseas for terminations".
[64][65] Faced with such a large number, the government decided to let the debate run over the originally allocated time, rather than using a guillotine motion to curtail it.
[67] At about 2.40am, as deputies were awaiting a division, Tom Barry pulled Áine Collins, a fellow Fine Gael TD for Cork East, onto his lap.
[78] The No voters were: 10 of the 14 Fianna Fáil senators; independents Feargal Quinn and Rónán Mullen; Taoiseach's nominee Mary Ann O'Brien; and Fidelma Healy Eames and Paul Bradford, who lost the Fine Gael whip.
[81][82] Fianna Fáil's Brian Ó Domhnaill claimed that allowing abortions in the case of foetal anomalies would deprive Ireland of future Special Olympics athletes.
[92] In May 2013, Fine Gael TD Tom Barry wrote to Cardinal Seán Brady and the nuncio, Charles John Brown, asking whether TDs would be excommunicated if they voted for the bill.
Breda O'Brien suggested doctors might induce labour of a borderline-viable fetus, resulting in permanent health problems associated with premature birth.
[95] Rónán Mullen suggested the prospect of medical malpractice lawsuits from such births might make doctors prefer late-term abortion instead.
[98] Separate regulations deal with certification of appropriate institutions, reporting of procedures performed, and application for review of refused termination.
[100] The Irish Times suggested that it was permissible for the Mater to opt out of the Act, due to the deletion from the bill of an explicit requirement for approved institutions to facilitate terminations.
[4][110][111][112][113] Separate from the administrative regulations are the clinical guidelines for physicians to determine whether a given case met the legal criteria specified by the Act.
[5] The College of Psychiatrists advised members not to participate in assessments for risk of loss of life from suicide until the guidelines had been published.
[118] The Irish Times commented that the guidelines differed from those circulated in July, and "appear to go further than the Act in prescribing C-section and early induction"; Minister for Health Leo Varadkar denied the "Ms Y" case had influenced them.
[119] ON 29 October 2014, the Government made a submission to the Council of Europe on its response to the A, B and C v Ireland judgment, summarizing the Act and ensuing regulations and publicity, and stating that the Health Service Executive would be producing a patient information leaflet for women.
[121][122] The first annual report on the Act's operation, covering the calendar year 2014, was laid before the Dáil on 29 June 2015 by the Minister for Health.
[123][124][125] In 2017, news media reported the case of an adolescent who was detained for several days under the Mental Health Act by the District Court on the evidence of psychiatrist that her distress at being pregnant placed her at risk of suicide.
Simon Harris, the Minister for Health, said, "The clear advice of the Attorney General, which I am sharing with the House, is that this Bill fails to discharge the State's obligations under Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution and would, if passed, be likely to be subject to immediate successful legal challenge.
[141] The recommendation was formally reported to the Oireachtas on 29 June 2017,[141] and effected by the 36th Amendment of the Constitution, approved at a referendum on 25 May 2018 by 66.4% of voters, and signed into law on 18 September 2018.
It repealed the 2013 Act while re-enacting a similar regulatory framework for terminations between 12 weeks' gestation and viability, which are permitted for "a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman".