Varadkar: Women's health at risk due to abortion law

The Minister for Health has said the lives of Irish women are being put at risk because of Ireland's laws on terminations.

Leo Varadkar said the current law had a "chilling effect" on doctors who have to make decisions based on law and not medicine.

However, he ruled out any referendum on the issue for now, saying the Government did not have a mandate to hold one.

The Minister added that although he thinks the law needed to be improved, he first wanted agreement on what should be allowed.

"While (the current law) protects the right to life of the mother, it has no regard for her longterm health," he said.

"If a stroke, heart attack or epileptic seizure happens, perhaps resulting in permanent disability - that is acceptable under our laws. I don't think that's right."

He added: "It's not my right to impose my view on others and the current Government has no electoral mandate to do so. This is not a decision that should be rushed.

"We are told that Civil War politics is now behind us. Perhaps we need to ensure the politics of the moral civil war are behind us as well."

The Pro Life campaign criticised Minister Varadkar's comments, saying there was nothing restrictive about our laws on abortion.

The organisation said there is nothing in the legislation to prevent two psychiatrists who view abortion as harmless from signing off on terminations, secure in the knowledge they do not have to meet any evidence-based test.

The group also says what is chilling about the current abortion debate is the way in which the unborn child throughout the nine months of pregnancy has been written out of the discussion.