A network of large and specialist hospitals will be designated to provide termination of pregnancies where a woman's life is at risk if the abortion referendum passes next month.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, will sign an order for the hospitals to provide the services in cases where a number of rare disorders threaten the life of a pregnant woman.
The three Dublin maternity hospitals already conduct up to a dozen terminations each year where pregnant women are found to be suffering from life-threatening conditions such as cancer of the womb, pre-eclampsia and Eisenmenger's syndrome.
Mr Martin's order is expected to apply to the Dublin maternity hospitals, the major city hospitals in Cork, Limerick and Galway, the dozen or so "bank one" acute hospitals and some "band two" regional hospitals.
The designated hospitals are being selected on the basis that they can provide specialist services for women requiring emergency treatment, such as obstetrics, gynaecology, cancer treatment and theatre backup. Terminations will not be available at smaller regional hospitals.
Doctors who do not wish to provide the service on grounds of conscience will be allowed to opt out, but the hospital will have to ensure that the service is provided by someone else.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, has said he has changed his views on abortion in the case of women who were suicidal. Dr McDaid, a GP, says he has changed his views because psychiatrists have changed their views on the matter, and because society has become more sympathetic to the plight of women with crisis pregnancies since the 1992 abortion referendum.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said that although he had been sympathetic to their plight, he had never advocated that women who were suicidal would be allowed to have an abortion for that reason.
