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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/12/ireland-law-abortion-rights

 

IRELAND - PARLIAMENT PASSES GROUNDBREAKING LAW ALLOWING ABORTION LIMITED RIGHTS

 

Bill passes which will allow for abortions only when woman's life is under threat or if she is suicidal

 

 

Irish parliamentarians passed a groundbreaking law early allowing limited abortion rights in the republic.

12 July 2013 - Enda Kenny and his coalition government pushed through the protection of life in pregnancy bill, which will allow for abortions only when a woman's life is under threat if her pregnancy continues or if she is suicidal.

Despite threats of excommunication from cardinals and bishops, the privately devout Catholic prime minister eventually won the vote after a marathon two-day debate in the Dáil.

Members voted by 127 to 31 to legalise abortion in cases of medical emergencies as well as the risk of suicide.

However, pro-choice and anti-abortion groups have already threatened court cases to challenge the new law.

The legislation which passed through the Dáil after 24 hours of tortuous debate will not stop the annual abortion trail from Ireland to Britain.

According to Irish department of health figures released on Thursday, about 4,000 Irish women travelled to British hospitals and clinics to terminate their pregnancies last year. They included 124 who were under 18.

The new law also does not include women who were raped, meaning grim traffic across the Irish Sea for abortions will continue.

Mara Clarke, director of the London-based Abortion Support Network, a charity that raises money to help women afford the £400-£2,000 it costs to travel and pay privately for an abortion in England, condemned the restriction on an Irish woman's right to choose. She said: "Given that the Irish government has now had more than 22 years to legislate on the X case, I'm not sure what the hold up is but then I'm not an expert on Irish abortion law.

"I am an expert in what happens to women when access to abortion is restricted. Even if this law is enacted, only a very, very small percentage of women who need abortions will be able to access them in Ireland.

"Women pregnant as result of rape, women with fatal foetal anomalies, couples who simply can't afford to care for a (or in most cases, another) child, will still be left behind.

"This week alone, Abortion Support Network has heard from a woman whose abusive husband hid her passport so she couldn't travel for an abortion, a woman who considered crashing her car to induce a miscarriage, and a couple whose very wanted pregnancy had catastrophic foetal anomalies – and these were only three of the 10 women who contacted us last week."

Sinn Féin TD (MP) Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin predicted that it was only a matter of time before a case emerged through the courts challenging that aspect of the new bill that criminalises abortion.

Anyone procuring or seeking an abortion could face up to 14 years in prison. He said a case might result from a young woman taking abortion pills who might seek to challenge the penalty.

Independent leftwing TD Catherine Murphy said the criminalisation of women seeking abortions could open up Ireland to fresh challenges in the European court of human rights.

Terminations For Medical Reasons – the campaign group for women who seek abortions because their babies will die if their pregnancies continue – accused the government of lacking courage to include their cases in the legislation.

"We are enormously saddened that their decision means that it could now be years before this is changed in legislation. With each week that passes, more grieving women and couples will have to leave Ireland to receive medical care," a TMFR spokesperson said.

During the debate, the Europe minister Lucinda Creighton was expelled from the Fine Gael parliamentary party. Creighton voted against the abortion law reform and is now expected to lose her ministerial job as well. On her way out of the Dáil, Creighton shook Kenny's hand saying: "I'm very sad, but I genuinely wish Enda Kenny and all the government the very best."

After leaving, she reminded Fine Gael that they had made an electoral promise in 2011 not to introduce abortion into Ireland.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/ireland-abortion-bill-womens-rights-catholic

 

IRELAND - HEATED GOVERNMENT DIVISIONS IN DEBATE ON PROPOSED ABORTION LAW

 

Ireland's coalition government defeats two attempts to water-down bill that will give women limited rights to abortion.

- 11 July 2013 18.54 BST

Despite threats of excommunication from cardinals and bishops, a privately devout Catholic prime minister is on the verge of introducing limited abortion into Ireland for the first time in the Republic's existence.

Enda Kenny and his coalition government are on course to push through the Protection of Life in Pregnancy bill [PDF] to allow for abortions when a woman's life is under threat if her pregnancy continues or if she is suicidal.

But the legislation passing through the Dàil after 24 hours of torturous debate will not stop the the thousands of women who travel each year from Ireland to Britain for an abortion.

According to Irish Department of Health figures released on the same day as the debate, around 4,000 Irish women travelled to British hospitals and clinics to terminate their pregnancies last year. They included 124 who were under the age of 18.

Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) chief executive Niall Behan said the figures "mask the hardship experienced by women who are denied access to abortion services in Ireland".

On Thursday, the Dublin High Court also refused to grant an injunction aimed at stopping provisions of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill being voted into law, just hours before the matter returned to the Dáil. The parliamentary debate was not due to resume until 5pm with over 100 of 165 proposed amendments to the bill still being debated.

Enda Kenny who has described himself as a Catholic but "not a Catholic Taoiseach" said if the bill could conclude on Thursday night, "so much the better". If the bill does not now complete its planned passage through the Dáil, the debate is expected to resume on Friday.

The manner in which the government has tried to introduce the historic legislation came under fire from the main opposition party Fianna Fail. Its leader Micháel Martin described the organisation of the overnight debate as "shambolic" and "lamentable" given that it concluded at 5am on Thursday without a decisive vote.

Regardless of the criticism of the way the bill has gone through the Dáil it appears highly likely it will be made into law. The Government easily won the first two Dáil votes on amendments to the bill. The first was on Amendment 8, which effectively called for the deletion of the suicide clause. The second vote was on Amendment 10, which deals with fatal foetal abnormalities. Both were defeated with heavy majorities.

Although critics from the left have accused the Fine Gael and Labour parties of not going far enough, the expected passing of the bill does mark another defeat for the temporal power of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The outgoing leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, held out in May for the possibility of banning Irish parliamentarians from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for the bill. However, Dr Brady's own influence has been severely dented after he was caught up in the deluge of paedophile priest scandals that have undermined the church's authority in Ireland.

Brady was forced to issue a public apology last year to a man who revealed that the cardinal failed to report to police and parents a list of children who were being abused by the notorious paedophile priest, Father Brendan Smyth. Brady was the Catholic church's notetaker during a secret meeting in 1975 between Brendan Boland, then 14, and senior clerics after the boy made allegations about Smyth.

Boland's father accompanied him to the meeting, but was not allowed into the hearing between senior clergy and the boy. Father Smyth went on to abuse hundreds of children in orphanages, parishes and hospitals both in Ireland and abroad.

Since the exposure of more clerical paedophiles and revelations that the Catholic hierarchy covered up various scandals, Irish politicians have been less fearful of being denounced from the pulpit, which in the past would have been fatal for their careers in one of the Vatican's most favoured and loyal nations.

The Fine Gael-Labour government, though, was not so much prompted by a new sense of defiance of the Catholic clergy and Rome, but rather a series of court cases in Dublin and Strasbourg.

In 1992 the Irish Supreme Court ruled abortion should be allowed if there was a threat to a mother's life, including suicide. The ruling was connected to the case taken by a 14 year old rape victim who became pregnant and was initially refused permission to travel outside the Republic for an abortion. Twenty one years later that ruling will now be enshrined in Irish law.

Ireland was also under pressure after a European Court of Human Rights ruling that a woman in remission with cancer was discriminated against because she was forced to travel overseas for a termination.