Ireland: New calls for change in abortion law

The Human Rights Watch organisation has called on the Irish government to decriminalise abortion, and a new survey suggests that two-thirds of 18-34-year-olds believe abortion should be legal.

In a report titled A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland, Human Rights Watch accuses the government is accused of violating a long list of human rights in its treatment of abortion and related issues, including ‘health, information, privacy, freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, life, equal protection under the law, and nondiscrimination’, the Irish Examiner reports.

Human Rights Watch says the actions of the Government in the face of the ‘need for abortion’ have been ‘erratic and divisive’, and it calls for a change to its restrictive abortion laws to meet its obligations under international law. The document urges the Government to take ‘immediate steps toward decriminalising all abortion for women living in Ireland’, and it criticises the government for doing ‘little to mitigate the effects of a condemnatory public discourse on abortion’.

The report was launched in Dublin on 28 January. It was criticised by the anti-abortion site LifeSiteNews.com. Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said:

‘Ireland has repeatedly put the abortion question before its citizens and the right to life has repeatedly won. This hectoring of a sovereign state by abortion radicals has got to stop. Ireland has decided.’

The results of an Irish Examiner/Red C poll published on 21 January found that two-thirds of 18-34-year-olds believe abortion should be legalised in Ireland, and that 81% of men believe the morning after pill should be freely available.

The survey also found that almost one in four Irish women has had an unplanned pregnancy and that 10% of 18-34 year olds have been in a relationship where the woman had an abortion. An overwhelming majority want more information on abortion services and one in four women has taken the morning-after pill three times.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life (as distinct from the health) of the mother. This includes a risk arising from a threat of suicide. Women can travel abroad to get an abortion and it is lawful to provide information about abortions abroad, subject to strict conditions. It is not legal to encourage or advocate an abortion in individual cases.

Rights body calls for legalised abortion. Irish Examiner, 28 January 2010

Human Rights Watch Twists Ireland’s Arm to Legalize Abortion. LifeSiteNews.com, 26 January 2010

Two-thirds want abortion legalised. Irish Herald, 21 January 2010