Irish Abortion Laws Breach Irish Women’s Human Rights
Today’s decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of ABC v Ireland is an important victory for Irish women in their fight to secure their right to access abortion in their own country.
We welcome the ECHR’s ruling that the Irish state violated Ms. C’s human rights by failing to provide any legislative or regulatory scheme in Ireland by which a woman could establish whether she is entitled to a lifesaving abortion.
While it is disappointing that the court failed to uphold the rights of the other two women, we welcome the Court’s unanimous criticism of the Irish government’s failure to provide legislation in line with the ‘X’ case judgment.
Since the 1992 Supreme Court ruling, there have been two referendums, both of which upheld the judgment allowing abortion where there is “a real and substantial risk” to the life of the pregnant woman. This inaction and political cowardice makes a mockery of the government’s defence of “profound moral values deeply embedded in Irish society”. The failure to legislate to protect women was not only remiss but actively negligent and therefore, profoundly immoral.
The experiences of the three Irish women in the ABC case reveal something of the daily reality faced by thousands of Irish women who are forced to travel abroad for abortions. Since 1980 at least 140,000 women have been forced to travel to the UK and beyond to access safe abortion services.
Abortion is illegal in Ireland, North and South, in almost all circumstances, with potential penalties of penal servitude for life for both patients and service providers. The government has repeatedly refused to clarify the possible reach of the criminal penalties involved in procuring an abortion. The lack of legal and policy guidance on when, specifically, an abortion might be legally performed within Ireland has meant that some doctors are reluctant even to provide pre-natal screening for severe fetal abnormalities, and very few – if any – will offer a woman whose life is at risk a legal abortion.
Throughout the last two decades, the Irish government has used injunctions to prevent individuals from travelling abroad for abortion, actively sabotaging women’s health decisions. As recently as 2007, a 17-year-old girl in the custody of the Health Services Executive had to go to court to get permission to travel to Britain for an abortion.Organisations that provide information on how to access abortion services abroad face restrictions on when and how this information can legally be conveyed, under threat of penalties. As the excellent campaigning work of Choice Ireland has revealed the government has done nothing to prevent ‘rogue’ agencies that represent themselves as providers of information about abortion from circulating blatantly misleading and false information.
Abortion is a reality for Irish women; Ireland’s abortion rate is comparable to other European countries where abortion is illegal. Yet its illegal nature in Ireland forces women to hide out of fear, shame or criminal prosecution. Opinion polls show that the majority of Irish people are in favour of more open abortion laws. Indeed, Irish people have never been given the opportunity to vote in favour of abortion but in recent years, despite numerous attempts to further restrict abortion rights, have consistently voted against these restrictions.
Today’s judgment is a step forward for Irish women, but it is only the beginning. We call on the government to immediately legislate for abortion in line with the Supreme Court ruling in the ‘X’ case. There should be no question of a further referendum. There have been two referendums on the ‘X’ case judgment and in both cases the electorate rejected the government’s attempts to further restrict abortion. We call on the Labour Party to make this legislation a core demand of their programme for government. We recognise that legislation in line with the ‘X’ case is only the beginning. The majority of women who choose to have an abortion do so not because their life is at risk. The reasons are different, complicated and unique to each particular woman. Therefore, only a change in the law that allows for free, safe and legal abortion can account for this diversity.Therese Caherty Sinead Kennedy Ailbhe Smyth
