Ireland's prime minister says anti-abortion activists in the predominantly Catholic country have inundated his office with threatening packages and letters branding him a murderer, some written in blood.
Enda Kenny made the declaration today as his government prepared to publish a bill that would legalize abortions in exceptional cases where doctors deem the woman's life is in danger from continued pregnancy. Anti-abortion activists insist the proposed law would lead eventually to widespread abortion.
Ireland is one of two European Union members, alongside Malta, that outlaws abortion. Ireland has faced rising pressure to clarify its law on life-saving abortions following the death last year in a hospital of a Indian woman who suffered blood poisoning during a grueling miscarriage.
The government plans to publish an experts' report into that death Thursday.
