The Government’s new abortion law came into effect
yesterday.

The law permits termination of pregnancy through all nine
months of pregnancy where a woman threatens suicide.

It compels named Catholic hospitals to perform abortions
under the terms of the law and doctors who are pro-life must refer patients
seeking abortions to doctors who are pro-choice.

An order for
the law to come into force on the 1st of January 2014 was signed by Health
Minister James Reilly (pictured) last month, the Irish Times reports. 

The legislation, The Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act,
was passed last July against a background of huge street protests.

Under the law, a woman will be permitted to obtain an
abortion where two obstetricians and a psychiatrist certify that it is
necessary to save her life. 

The Medical Council of Ireland has repeatedly said that
direct abortion is not a medical treatment. 

No medical evidence exists to suggest that abortion is a
treatment for suicidal ideation. 

Meanwhile, the Spanish Government has announced plans to tighten the
country’s liberal abortion law which allows abortion on demand up to 14 weeks
into a pregnancy.

The governing People’s Party wants to restrict abortion to
cases where the pregnancy endangers the mother’s psychological or physical
health or in cases of rape, though the full draft of proposals are yet to be
tabled, the Guardian reports. 

Plans
are also expected to include legislation ensuring 16 and 17-year-olds will have
to obtain permission from their parents if they want to have an abortion.

The
Government plans to overturn laws weakened by Spain’s Socialist Party in 2010.
Alongside abortion on demand, the party brought in reforms allowing abortions
up to 22 weeks in cases where the mother’s health is at risk or the unborn baby
shows serious deformities.

Spain’s
Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon has indicated that he would like to
return to a system similar to the country’s 1985 abortion law where termination
of pregnancy would be allowed only in the case of rape, or when the physical or
mental health of the mother is at risk.