Irish hospitals with a Catholic ethos will be expected to carry out abortions when the country’s new laws on terminations come into effect, the Taoiseach has made clear. Leo Varadkar said that while individual doctors, nurses or midwives could opt out of performing procedures on conscience grounds, entire institutions will not have that option. He was addressing concerns about surgical abortions. The government is drafting legislation to allow any woman to request an abortion up to 12 weeks, subject to a cooling-off period, and to allow abortion in extreme cases between 12 and 24 weeks. This was after citizens voted two-to-one in a referendum to repeal the state’s constitutional ban on abortions. The Taoiseach said the legislation would follow the model of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which allowed for terminations in extreme medical circumstances and for individual medics to opt out.