Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Within the legal profession, there is a view that sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Act may be unconstitutional - the 1861 Act was introduced prior to the Constitution - in light of the 1983 constitutional amendment. Were this found to be the case, and if this Bill were not in existence to replace sections 58 and 59, we would have no legislation at all to make terminations illegal. This is a further reason for the urgency of the Bill's passage.