Burton: Abortion laws do not serve women well

Tánaiste Joan Burton has branded Ireland’s abortion laws too restrictive, insisting women want doctors at their hospital beds — not lawyers.

The Labour leader said the eighth amendment, which gives equal status to the health of the mother and foetus, did not serve women well “when issues of their life, their safety, their health, are in question”.

She said she could not comment on the Midlands case, but said the eighth amendment would not be repealed in the lifetime of this Government.