Prior to 2018, abortion was legal only where pregnancy presented "a real and substantial risk to the life" of the woman, as mandated by the 1983 Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and regulated by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. A referendum on 25 May 2018 approved the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution, which in effect repealed the Eighth Amendment and empowered the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion. The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill was published on 27 September 2018 and signed into law on 20 December 2018. The act came into force on 1 January 2019.