Attorney General v X, [1992] IESC 1; [1992] 1 IR 1, (more commonly known as the "X Case") was a landmark Irish Supreme Court case which established the right of Irish women to an abortion if a pregnant woman's life was at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide. Background The case involved a fourteen-year-old girl (named only as "X" in the courts and the media to protect her identity) who was a ward of the state and who had been the victim of a statutory rape by a neighbour in December 1991 and became pregnant. X told her mother of suicidal thoughts because of the unwanted pregnancy, and as abortion was illegal in the state, the family planned to travel abroad for an abortion. Before the planned abortion was carried out, the family asked the Garda Síochána (police) if DNA from the aborted foetus would be admissible as evidence in the courts, as the neighbour was denying responsibility. The garda asked the Attorney General's office for advice. Attorney General Harry Whelehan, sought an injunction under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland (which guaranteed "the right to life of the unborn") preventing her from having the procedure carried out. The injunction was granted by Declan Costello in the High Court in February 1992. The High Court injunction was appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned it by a majority of four to one (Hederman J. dissenting) in March 1992. The majority opinion (Finlay C.J., McCarthy, Egan and O'Flaherty J.J.) held that a woman had a right to an abortion under Article 40.3.3 if there was "a real and substantial risk" to her life. This right did not exist if there was a risk to her health but not her life; however, it did exist if the risk was the possibility of suicide. X miscarried shortly after the judgement. In 2013 Justice O'Flaherty, now retired, said that the X Case was "peculiar to its own particular facts", since X miscarried and did not have an abortion, and this rendered the case moot in Irish law. According to O'Flaherty, his reasoning for agreeing to uphold X's right to travel to the United Kingdom for an abortion because of suicidal ideation, "The stark situation is, if someone who is pregnant commits suicide, you lose the mother and the child." "The man in the X case", unnamed at the time to