Irish government expected to support abortion bill Abortion rights demonstrators hold a vigil for Savita Halappanavar in Dublin in support of legislative change on abortion. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images The Irish coalition government is expected to support legislation on Tuesday that will lead to limited abortion in the republic, including terminations in cases where mothers are suicidal. The cabinet is meeting in Dublin to approve the controversial abortion bill, which has split the main ruling party, Fine Gael. Some Fine Gael backbenchers have indicated they will vote against liberalisation of Ireland's strict anti-abortion laws. The historic move comes just over a week after an inquest ended into the death of an Indian dentist, Savita Halappanavar, who died in an Irish hospital after she was refused an emergency termination. The case put a global focus on Ireland's abortion laws and piled further pressure on the Fine Gael-Labour government to reform them. The coalition has already promised to implement the Irish supreme court judgment in the 1992 X case, which found that abortion was legal under the constitution if there was a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother. That court held that this included the threat of suicide. The X case concerned a 14-year-old who became pregnant after being raped; her legal team fought for her right to have a termination abroad, arguing that their client was suicidal.