Threat to health is not enough to give a woman the right to an abortion in Ireland

I AM afraid Nick Folley (Letters, June 12) is mistaken in the belief that “Irish law allows for abortion where there is a threat to the health of the mother.”

Jennifer Dewan (Letters, May 31) was right. Our only legal ruling on the issue, in the ‘X’ case, stated that abortion is permissible in Ireland only “if it is established … that there is a real and substantial risk to the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother.”

Fifteen years after the ‘X’ case, we still do not have legislation to clarify whether “a real and substantial risk” to a woman’s life means that abortion is permissible when a woman suffers a condition that threatens her life or if she must be in imminent danger of dying.