Cabinet agrees to repeal 8th and replace wording

The Government has agreed that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed and replaced with new text in the Constitution to allow the Oireachtas set abortion laws.

Based on legal advice from the attorney general, Seamus Woulfe, the Cabinet decided to differ with the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, which called for a simple repeal.

The 1983 amendment guarantees the equal right to life of a mother and her unborn child.