The Government was warned before it passed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act that the law would create problems of the kind that have arisen in the current abortion controversy.

The country’s abortion laws are once again under the spotlight, with all sides in the debate calling for legislation passed less than a year ago to be scrapped.

There are fresh calls for a referendum on abortion, with a new campaign group urging a repeal of the eighth amendment giving an equal right to the life of a pregnant woman and the unborn child.

Family doctors who are members of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) have voted in favour of a motion calling for women pregnant with non-viable foetal anomalies to have access to legal abortion in the Republic.

Doctors for Choice welcomes steps to deal with the X Case.

Doctors on both sides of the abortion debate yesterday united to condemn proposals that suicidal women be assessed by a six-consultant panel before being granted permission to terminate a pregnancy.

A seminar on abortion is being held in Dublin today as pro-choice campaigners step up their nationwide campaign on reproductive rights for women.

A DOCTORS’ group has called on the Medical Council to drop its ban on abortion and free GPs to refer women to abortion clinics.

Pro-choice doctors have submitted proposals to the Irish Medical Council calling for the removal of its ban on abortion

Confusion over next week’s referendum on abortion law intensified today when the heads of Dublin’s three main maternity hospitals backed the Government’s controversial proposal for the poll - and then said terminations should be permitted in certain circumstances.