Both the 12-week and 20-week laws include exemptions for rape, incest, and cases when the mother's life is in danger or the foetus is diagnosed with an extremely serious disorder.

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Most countries in the region - where Roman Catholicism is a dominant force - allow abortion only in cases of rape, when the woman's life is in danger or if the foetus is severely deformed.

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Nearly every day, he sat at the back of Galway court house and listened to the details of his wife's last days, and her miscarriage of their 17-week-old female foetus, a much-longed for child.

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The judge found the main blame for Kalisha's death lay with the doctor, after he failed to diagnose the pregnancy as ectopic, where the foetus develops outside the womb.

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