Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992
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 | It has been suggested that this article be merged with Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland and Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland to November 1992 Irish constitutional referendums. (Discuss) Proposed since February 2024. |
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To exclude the risk of suicide as sufficient reason to legally allow an abortion | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992 (bill no. 24 of 1992) was a rejected proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland to exclude the risk of suicide as sufficient reason to legally allow an abortion. It was one of three referendums on abortion held on 25 November 1992, the date of the 1992 general election. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments were approved. As these could not be renamed, there has been no enacted Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution.
Proposed changes to the text[edit]
Proposed insertion of additional text to Article 40.3.3°:
It shall be unlawful to terminate the life of an unborn unless such termination is necessary to save the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother where there is an illness or disorder of the mother giving rise to a real and substantial risk to her life, not being a risk of self-destruction.
Background[edit]
The Eighth Amendment passed in 1983 added the following text to the Constitution as Article 40.3.3°:
The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.
In March 1992, the Supreme Court held in Attorney General v. X (commonly known as the X Case), that a 14-year-old girl who had become pregnant as a result of rape could obtain an abortion in circumstances where there was a threat to her life from suicide. This amendment proposed that the possibility of suicide was not a sufficient threat to justify an abortion. The proposal was put to a referendum on 25 November 1992 but was rejected.
On the same day, the Thirteenth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment were approved by referendum. The former guaranteed freedom of travel abroad to obtain an abortion, and the latter, access to information in Ireland with respect to the same issue. The 1992 general election was held on the same date.
Passage through the Oireachtas[edit]
The Twelfth Amendment Bill was proposed in the Dáil by Minister for Justice Pádraig Flynn.[1] The Amendment was approved by the Dáil on 27 October 1992:[2]
| Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992: Final Stages. Absolute majority: 83/166 | ||
| Vote | Parties | Votes |
 Yes | Fianna Fáil (63), Progressive Democrats (5) | 68 / 166 |
| No | Fine Gael (35), Labour Party (13), Democratic Left (6), Green Party (1), Independent (2) | 57 / 166 |
Fianna Fáil Senator Des Hanafin, a member of the Pro Life Campaign (PLC), did not vote for the government wording. He proposed an amendment at committee stage proposing the wording supported by the PLC:
It shall be unlawful to act in such a way as to bring about the termination of the life of an unborn unless such termination arises indirectly as a side-effect of treatment designed to protect the life of the mother.
This wording was not voted on, and the bill was approved by the Seanad on 30 October 1992.[3]
| Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992: Final Stages. Absolute majority: 31/60 | ||
| Vote | Parties | Votes |
| Yes | Fianna Fáil (26) | 26 / 60 |
| No | Fine Gael (11), Labour Party (2), Independent (3) | 17 / 60 |
Result[edit]
The amendment was put to a referendum on 25 November, where it was rejected.
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
 No | 1,079,297 | 65.35 |
| Yes | 572,177 | 34.65 |
| Valid votes | 1,651,474 | 95.28 |
| Invalid or blank votes | 81,835 | 4.72 |
| Total votes | 1,733,309 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,542,841 | 68.16 |
| Constituency | Electorate | Turnout (%) | Votes | Proportion of votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | Yes | No | |||
| Carlow–Kilkenny | 81,192 | 69.2% | 20,130 | 32,900 | 38.0% | 62.0% |
| Cavan–Monaghan | 79,004 | 70.3% | 20,494 | 31,290 | 39.6% | 60.4% |
| Clare | 65,579 | 67.9% | 15,504 | 26,251 | 37.1% | 62.9% |
| Cork East | 58,160 | 71.9% | 12,684 | 27,210 | 31.8% | 68.2% |
| Cork North-Central | 68,209 | 66.6% | 13,876 | 30,024 | 31.6% | 68.4% |
| Cork North-West | 44,578 | 75.4% | 9,346 | 22,225 | 29.6% | 70.4% |
| Cork South-Central | 75,747 | 71.1% | 16,862 | 35,224 | 32.4% | 67.6% |
| Cork South-West | 44,627 | 73.8% | 9,954 | 20,638 | 32.5% | 67.5% |
| Donegal North-East | 46,934 | 67.3% | 8,313 | 21,496 | 27.9% | 72.1% |
| Donegal South-West | 48,494 | 62.2% | 8,623 | 19,666 | 30.5% | 69.5% |
| Dublin Central | 59,941 | 61.3% | 11,557 | 23,922 | 32.6% | 67.4% |
| Dublin North | 62,917 | 69.0% | 16,037 | 26,309 | 37.9% | 62.1% |
| Dublin North-Central | 64,349 | 71.8% | 14,302 | 30,815 | 31.7% | 68.3% |
| Dublin North-East | 57,888 | 69.7% | 14,329 | 25,220 | 36.2% | 63.8% |
| Dublin North-West | 57,951 | 65.3% | 12,485 | 24,251 | 34.0% | 66.0% |
| Dublin South | 84,767 | 70.5% | 15,976 | 42,424 | 27.4% | 72.6% |
| Dublin South-Central | 63,316 | 64.4% | 12,656 | 27,164 | 31.8% | 68.2% |
| Dublin South-East | 68,366 | 58.9% | 10,361 | 29,097 | 26.3% | 73.7% |
| Dublin South-West | 69,654 | 61.9% | 16,832 | 25,330 | 39.9% | 60.1% |
| Dublin West | 57,755 | 65.0% | 14,461 | 22,258 | 39.4% | 60.6% |
| Dún Laoghaire | 85,924 | 68.7% | 17,284 | 40,503 | 29.9% | 70.1% |
| Galway East | 42,604 | 68.8% | 10,364 | 16,832 | 38.1% | 61.9% |
| Galway West | 78,539 | 63.7% | 15,557 | 31,337 | 33.2% | 66.8% |
| Kerry North | 48,606 | 69.6% | 9,885 | 21,464 | 31.5% | 68.5% |
| Kerry South | 44,034 | 70.1% | 10,370 | 17,861 | 36.7% | 63.3% |
| Kildare | 77,798 | 65.3% | 19,187 | 29,873 | 39.1% | 60.9% |
| Laois–Offaly | 77,226 | 70.2% | 18,915 | 31,947 | 37.2% | 62.8% |
| Limerick East | 71,004 | 68.6% | 14,799 | 31,800 | 31.8% | 68.2% |
| Limerick West | 44,768 | 71.3% | 9,086 | 20,581 | 30.6% | 69.4% |
| Longford–Roscommon | 60,452 | 74.9% | 16,155 | 25,701 | 38.6% | 61.4% |
| Louth | 65,666 | 67.3% | 16,509 | 25,999 | 38.8% | 61.2% |
| Mayo East | 43,392 | 68.0% | 10,055 | 17,044 | 37.1% | 62.9% |
| Mayo West | 43,407 | 68.4% | 11,009 | 16,165 | 40.5% | 59.5% |
| Meath | 77,900 | 66.0% | 19,570 | 29,688 | 39.7% | 60.3% |
| Sligo–Leitrim | 60,675 | 70.5% | 14,817 | 24,887 | 37.3% | 62.7% |
| Tipperary North | 42,633 | 74.9% | 10,102 | 19,693 | 33.9% | 66.1% |
| Tipperary South | 56,705 | 70.3% | 12,713 | 24,952 | 33.7% | 66.3% |
| Waterford | 63,692 | 67.7% | 13,372 | 27,852 | 32.4% | 67.6% |
| Westmeath | 46,128 | 67.0% | 10,901 | 18,340 | 37.3% | 62.7% |
| Wexford | 75,553 | 69.6% | 18,421 | 31,371 | 37.0% | 63.0% |
| Wicklow | 76,707 | 67.8% | 18,324 | 31,693 | 36.6% | 63.4% |
| Total | 2,542,841 | 68.2% | 572,177 | 1,079,297 | 34.7% | 65.3% |
Later developments[edit]
No legislation was enacted in the aftermath of this defeated referendum. In 2002, the proposed Twenty-fifth Amendment would have similarly excluded the risk of suicide as grounds for an abortion. On this occasion, the government proposal did have the support of the Pro Life Campaign. This too was rejected in a referendum, but by a much narrower margin.
The European Court of Human Rights found against the state in A, B and C v Ireland (2010). The government responded to this with the enactment of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which provided for abortion in the cases where there was a risk to the life of the woman, including from a risk of suicide.
References[edit]
- ^ Pádraig Flynn, Minister for Justice (20 October 1992). "Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992: Second Stage.". Dáil Debates. Vol. 423. Ireland: Dáil Éireann. col. 1893. Archived 19 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992: Committee and Final Stages". Dáil Debates. Vol. 424. Ireland: Dáil Éireann. 27 October 1992. Archived 16 July 2023 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992: Committee and Final Stages". Seanad Debates. Vol. 134. Ireland: Seanad Éireann. 30 October 1992. Archived 22 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Referendum Results" (PDF). Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. p. 46. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 27 January 2024.