Irish women take abortion law to court

Three women are to challenge the Irish government’s ban on abortion in a case at the European Court of Human Rights. 

One of the women sought an abortion because her doctor warned she was at risk of an ectopic pregnancy. The second accidentally became pregnant while she was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. The third became unintentionally pregnant when she was trying to improve her personal circumstances in the hope of regaining custody of her children.

Lawyers will argue that the Irish ban jeopardises women’s health and wellbeing.

On 9 December, the women’s case will be heard in Strasbourg in front of 17 judges, with the Irish Government opposing. Abortion is criminalised under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, which threatens women who ‘unlawfully procure a miscarriage’ with life imprisonment.

The case of the three women, known as A, B & C, is being heard on the grounds that Ireland’s ban on abortion has jeopardised their health and wellbeing and violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The women lodged a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in August 2005, contending that the Republic of Ireland breached their human rights under Articles 2 (Right to Life), 3 (Prohibition of Torture), 8 (Right to Respect for Family and Private Life) and 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights. If successful, the case would establish a minimum degree of protection to which a woman seeking an abortion to protect her health and well-being would be entitled, under the European Convention of Human Rights.

An expert submission was accepted by the court on the needs of Irish women travelling for abortion care and the problems caused by treatment delays imposed by this legal restriction. This was written by BPAS together with Doctors for Choice in Ireland, and Dr Ruth Fletcher, a medical lawyer at Keele University. Dr Fletcher has conducted ESRC-funded social research on the support services needed for women travelling from Ireland to access abortion care.

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of BPAS, the charity that provides abortions and contraception in Great Britain to women travelling from the Republic of Ireland, said

‘Hundreds of women travel each year to BPAS from the Republic of Ireland in order to access safe, legal abortion care. This is provided to women in almost every other country as a matter of necessary and responsible law-making.’

Dr Patricia Lohr, Medical Director of BPAS, one of the charity’s many doctors and nurses caring for women travelling from the Republic of Ireland, said

‘Women from the Republic of Ireland often arrive for treatment alone, because they can’t afford to bring their partner or mother to accompany them. They are understandably very often apprehensive, having had to travel for hours or days to reach an unfamiliar clinic in England. It’s disturbing that the law in Ireland forces women to pay privately for care abroad. This creates weeks of delay before seeing a doctor while women try to borrow or save up money to pay for travel, accommodation and for their abortion.

‘The ban means that doctors in Ireland are not routinely issued with proper training and guidance to care for patients in the extremely common situation of seeking an abortion. Post-abortion aftercare and follow-up is not easily available in Ireland, meaning women may not get help if they need it, or have to pretend they’ve had a miscarriage to get help.

‘There is never any moral justification for the law to place a barrier between women and medical care. As doctors, we’re concerned at the needless burden of additional risk caused by treatment delays. You don’t have to be medically qualified to understand that the Irish abortion ban risks women’s physical health, requires abortions to be performed later than necessary, and creates serious emotional upset for women at an already stressful time.‘

Women challenge Irish abortion ban in court. Guardian, 7 December 2009

Press comment on the challenge to Ireland’s abortion ban to be heard in the European Court of Human Rights, 9 December 2009. BPAS, 7 December 2009