Ms Leah Hoctor:

No other country in Europe has a constitutional provision like that. Andorra, Malta and San Marino, which are very small countries on the map, have highly restrictive abortion laws and do not allow abortion at all or only to protect a woman's life. Of those, I believe only Andorra has any form of constitutional provision on the question but it does not equate the right to life of a woman with the right to life prior to birth. It just speaks about recognising the right to life and protecting it in its different phases. There is no equation of the rights. My understanding is that the Phillipines may be the only country in the world to have a similar provision to the Irish Constitution. Again, we would have to check this and come back to the Deputy. I believe that provision was adopted after the provision in the Irish Constitution was.