Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny has said he is receiving letters written in blood following his government's plans to allow limited access to abortion.
Kenny said he is also being branded a murderer by opponents of the plan, an issue that has polarized the country for decades.
According to the New York Daily News, Kenny's government agreed draft legislation in April to allow for limited access to abortion where a woman's life is in danger, including the threat of suicide.
After some 40,000 people protested outside government offices in Dublin in the largest anti-abortion demonstration in traditionally Roman Catholic Ireland's history, Kenny delivered a trenchant defense of the government's plans.
A two-decade debate over how Ireland should deal with a Supreme Court ruling that abortion be permitted was re-opened last year after the death of an Indian woman who was denied an abortion of her dying fetus.
On Tuesday, the Catholic Bishops of Ireland accused the government of misleading people on the abortion legislation.
