Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament has approved abortions in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the child would be handicapped, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

“It is the first time in the past 26 years that parliament dared to debate such a controversial law,” the agency said, referring to the period since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

IRNA said opponents of the bill that argued many disabled people had played important roles in society and that the legislation was open to abuse.

Proponents of the law underlined the financial drain on families of handicapped children.

IRNA said the legislation envisaged punishment for abuses of the law, but did not go into detail.

The legislation says an abortion would need a formal request from the parents in addition to the verdict of three specialists and the Coroner’s Office, IRNA reported.

All parliamentary legislation must be approved by the Guardian Council, a 12-man conservative legislative watchdog composed of six clerics and six lawyers.