The resulting Article 40.3.3° read: The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children obtained two injunctions affecting the availability of information on abortion services outside of the state.
In Attorney General (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Ireland) Ltd.) v Open Door Counselling Ltd. and Dublin Wellwoman Centre Ltd. (1988), an injunction was granted restraining two counseling agencies from assisting women to travel abroad to obtain abortions or informing them of the methods of communications with such clinics, and in Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Ireland) Ltd. v Grogan (1989), an injunction was granted restraining three students' unions from distributing information on abortion available outside the state.
In March 1992, the Supreme Court held in the X Case that a 14-year-old girl who had become pregnant as a result of rape could obtain an abortion in circumstances where there was a threat to her life from suicide.
The proposed Twelfth and Thirteenth Amendments were held to reverse differing elements of the Supreme Court's judgment in the X Case in which it held that a risk of suicide by a pregnant woman could constitute a risk to her health which would justify an abortion, and that the courts had to power to grant an injunction preventing a pregnant woman from travelling abroad for an abortion.
In these cases — beginning with Attorney-General (Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child) v Open Door Counselling Ltd.[1] — the courts had granted injunctions preventing individuals from distributing contact information for foreign abortion clinics.
[3] The Amendment was approved by the Dáil on 27 October 1992:[4] Fianna Fáil Senator Des Hanafin, a member of the Pro Life Campaign (PLC), did not vote for the government wording.
[5] A previous amendment to the constitution had been proposed in a private member's bill by Labour Party TD Brendan Howlin on 12 May 1992.
The legislation anticipated by the Fourteenth Amendment was provided for in the Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State For Termination of Pregnancies) Act 1995.