Abortion in Ireland

The title is a pure product of my imagination since it is forbidden to have an abortion in this country. Totally forbidden you'll ask? Well, here are the facts (I advise feminists to take a cigarette or a drink as this is extremely infuriating):

Like in a lot of countries at this time, laws were passed in Ireland in 1861 to outlaw the "procurement of a miscarriage", whether one oneself or somebody else. Similar laws were passed in France in the 1920's. All abortions are then liable to very severe sanctions (death penalty or life imprisonment).

In 1983 the Irish constitution was modified and included the 8th amendment, recognizing the "right to life of the unborn". This is the core of the legal issue in Ireland, as the legalisation of abortion will have to be done through another change in the Constitution.

Between 1986 and 1991 a legal battle opposed the SPUC (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) to counselling agencies and students' unions on the information disclosure. The latter were actually providing information on abortion, i.e. where and how to get it when women were confronted with an unwanted pregnancy. The SPUC won the case: it is since then forbidden by law to provide direct information on abortion if it is not requested. If the person wants to get this information it will have to be done during a 1 2 1 session, through generally a counselling agency (I will come back to that as there are loopholes in this law which don't prevent charlatans from giving false medical info). This is as well an extremely sensitive issue if you are a member of a feminist group wanting to advice women on abortion, as it is prosecutable to give this information over the phone, to distribute leaflets if not requested by the person in front of you and so on.

In 1992 the "X case" was brought into court. In brief the Irish authorities wanted to prevent a 14 year-old girl who had been raped from going to the UK to have an abortion. This was overturned by the Supreme Court which recognised that the high risk of suicide of this young girl was a sufficient reason for her to travel. However, when no such risk existed it was possible for the Irish authorities to prevent the women from travelling as it was for them contradictory with the 8th amendment.

At the end of the 1990's a series of cases (generally under aged girls pregnant as a result of a rape such as the "C case") reiterated the ban on abortion, and put the X case legislation at stake. It basically put at stake the right to travel even in case of suicide risks. The public opinion being supportive of the girl the risk of suicide is still a "sufficient" reason for the Irish authorities to allow women to travel abroad.

In 2001 the government held a referendum to try to reverse the 1992 X case, which enables women to travel if they have suicidal tendencies. The referendum's results were appalling: 49.58% voted yes (to restrict this right to travel) while 50.42% voted no.

In 2007 we are still living in a state where 17 Irish women travel to Great Britain each day to have an abortion, and this doesn't include the Irish women not giving Irish addresses and the ones travelling to other countries. We live in a country where it is forbidden to give out information on abortion but where the counselling agencies are not regulated if they don't fall under a certain category, which means they can advertise as counselling agencies and give false medical information to women in distress (I will write about it another time, meanwhile go to http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81414), a country where a young woman with a non viable foetus had to go to Court to be able to travel and abort and it is impossible to know the extent of distress, desperation and frustration of all the women not authorised to have a choice in their own country.

A list of websites if you want to know more:

http://choiceireland.blogspot.com/ (the pro choice group I belong to)
http://www.ifpa.ie/

http://www.safeandlegalinireland.ie/