March 2017: A bill for private MPs that would reduce the maximum penalty for abortion outside the provisions of the 2013 law from 14 years in prison to a fine of 1 euro is rejected in the Dáil. A government counter-motion states that the Citizens` Assembly can conclude its deliberations on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution before considering further a possible amendment to the law. In 1992, in case X, the Attorney General sought an injunction to prevent a thirteen-year-old girl who had been raped from obtaining an abortion in England, which was approved by the Supreme Court under Justice Declan Costello. In the appeal to the Supreme Court, this decision was overturned on the grounds that the girl was suicidal and therefore it was permissible to intervene to save her life. – reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies through the provision of education, counselling and contraceptive services; – Reduce the number of women with unwanted pregnancies who choose abortion by providing services and supports that make other options more attractive; – the provision of medical advice and services after an unwanted pregnancy. In addition, it has simply become easier for women to have a self-administered abortion at home. In 1988, France and China authorized the use of mifepristone3 to induce abortion in combination with a prostaglandin such as misoprostol; Other European countries soon followed. With the advent of the internet and the increasing availability of these drugs – they could be sent by mail after an online consultation – the use of this plan increased in the following years. (It was not illegal to get the drugs in Ireland just for the sake of use.) In one case in 2010, the Irish government denied Siobhán Whelan an abortion despite being diagnosed with fatal fetal syndrome. She had to travel from Ireland to the UK to terminate her pregnancy. In June 2017, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Ireland`s abortion law violated Whelan`s human rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, subjected Whelan to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and called for legalization and access to safe abortions. [64] [65] The verdict was welcomed by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
[65] July 2016: A bill to have MPs legislate abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality is defeated by 95 votes to 45. As a result, the public voted on three referendums that changed the law to allow women to travel for abortions and receive information about those trips. The third referendum, which aimed to eliminate the risk of suicide as a ground for abortion in Ireland, failed. In 2002, the government again let the public vote on lifting the suicide exemption and effectively took the issue out of the hands of the courts, and that referendum failed a second time. The abortion law in Northern Ireland is different from the abortion law in the Republic of Ireland, but in both countries you have the right to travel to another country to access safe and legal abortion care. In 2019, a woman who visited the national maternity hospital was also diagnosed with Edwards syndrome. An abortion was performed after 15 weeks. After the abortion, genetic testing came back negative for Edwards syndrome, devastating the parents and requiring an external investigation, which the hospital accepted. [76] During Ireland`s second periodic general review, the country`s restrictive abortion laws were the main concern of UN member states. 15 countries are making recommendations to reform Ireland`s abortion laws: Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, India, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Uruguay.The United States, France and Canada also make recommendations on sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Thirteenth Amendment was adopted in November 1992 in response to the Attorney General`s request that the protection of the unborn child provided by the Constitution could not be used to prohibit travel from the State to another State for the purpose of abortion. Various Catholic organizations, including the Irish Catholic Doctors` Guild, St. Joseph`s Young Priests Society and St. Thomas More Society, joined forces to form the Pro Life Amendment campaign. They began to promote the idea of making Ireland an exemplary anti-abortion nation by enshrining the abortion ban not only in law, but also in the country`s constitution. A system designed with those least in access to medical care in mind would certainly lead to a system that decriminalizes abortion and focuses on the autonomy of pregnant people, rather than one that introduces requirements for multiple visits and medical checkpoints for decision-making. Ireland`s abortion reform shows us the power of pro-choice activism to change the political status quo. But the resulting law also shows us the dangers of an abortion law that allows access to some and imposes restrictions on others. Much of the impetus for the 2018 referendum is attributed to Savita Halappanavar, who died of sepsis in a Galway hospital while missing her foetus.
Although they knew the growing threat to their lives and knew that the fetus would not survive, doctors refused to perform an abortion as long as the fetus had a heartbeat. When the heartbeat stopped a few days later, Halappanavar`s organs had begun to shut down and she died shortly after. In 2012, Savita Halappanavar, 31 years old and 17 weeks pregnant, visited a hospital in Galway, Ireland. Doctors determined that she had miscarried. However, because the fetus still had a detectable heartbeat, it was protected by the Eighth Amendment. The doctors could not intervene – legally, they ended her life – not even to save the mother. She was hospitalized for pain management while waiting for the miscarriage to progress naturally. In 1980, Marian Finucane won the Prix Italia for a documentary on abortion; She interviewed a woman who was about to have an abortion, who had travelled with her to England, who had been with her in hospital and who had spoken to her afterwards. [19] In 2001, approximately 7,000 women travelled abroad for abortions.
[20] Statistics showed that 4,149 Irish women had abortions in the UK in 2011. [21] One study found that in 2014, a total of 5,521 women donated Irish addresses to English and Welsh clinics that provided abortion services. [22] In the years leading up to 2018, some Irish women had abortions in the Netherlands. [23] Despite court decisions and public opinion, there have still been many cases where women have been denied medical treatment because they are pregnant. The case of Savita Halappanavar is simply the one that has attracted the most media attention. Following her case and a 2010 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, Ireland passed the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act (PLDPA) in 2013, which lists 25 public hospitals where women can have abortions if their lives are in danger, including suicide. However, the guidance document for this law created several restrictions, such as the requirement that two specialists confirm that the woman`s life was in danger. Find out more about your right to abortion in Northern Ireland, how the law has changed and what`s next for our campaign. With the anti-abortion stance of the Irish courts set in stone, Irish women began to turn to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice to persuade them to demand that the Irish courts change their position.As a member of the Council of Europe and the European Union, Ireland is contractually bound to follow the judgments of these European courts. In the early 1990s, when European courts issued rulings requiring Ireland to allow people to provide information about abortion or how to travel abroad to get one, the law changed accordingly. Even before 1983, people living in Ireland who wanted legal abortion went to England on the so-called “abortion route,” as abortion was also criminalized in Northern Ireland.
