Opposing responses from each campaign

The publication of the expert group on abortion sparked predictably opposing responses from either side of the debate.

Choice Ireland spokes-woman Stephanie Lord, writing in the Irish Examiner today, said expert groups have examined the issue several times and that this latest group was created as a mechanism to put off the “inevitable act of legislating for the X case judgment”.

“The State is now under a legal obligation from the European Court of Human Rights to rectify this legal vacuum and, to a certain extent, the expert group was established to state the obvious — that it is now time to legislate for the X case,” writes Ms Lord.