Restrictions hit poor women first

“IRISH abortion exists. It just doesn’t take place in Ireland.”

That is the view of Socialist TD Clare Daly, who last April introduced a private members’ bill in the Dáil to make abortion legal for pregnant women whose lives are at risk.

The bill, designed to legislate for the 1992 ruling of the Supreme Court in the X case, was roundly defeated, but Ms Daly has a point.