Ireland recently voted to repeal the eighth amendment to their constitution. The amendment banned all abortions under all circumstances, to the point that a doctor could actually be arrested for terminating a pregnancy even if the pregnancy was completely non-viable (meaning that there was no way for the pregnancy to be brought to term, and the child was going to die no matter what the doctors did). The calls for the repeal have been happening for several years now following a series of deaths caused by pregnancy complications. Under the amendment, there was no exception for the health or life of the mother, and a number of women dies from complications caused by miscarriages. Under Irish law before the repeal, any attempt to terminate a pregnancy prior to the natural death of the baby was considered an abortion, even in cases where it's clear that the child will not survive. In these cases, the doctors were aware that the babies couldn't survive, and that there were direct threats to the mothers' lives if the pregnancies were not terminated immediately, but chose to do nothing, and intentionally let the women die in order to protect themselves from legal issues.