Mahony: ‘I want to know that I will not go to jail’

One of the country’s biggest maternity hospitals, the Rotunda in Dublin, had six cases last year where pregnancies were terminated to save mothers’ lives.

A further three were carried out in the National Maternity Hospital in Holles St, the Oireachtas committee on health and children heard yesterday.

The masters of the hospitals said they never withheld treatment from mothers where their lives were at risk. However, they both pushed for legislation to protect them if they felt an abortion was needed to save a woman’s life.