The United Nations Human Rights
Committee says that Ireland’s abortion laws are a violation of human rights.
In a controversial judgement –
the outcome of a case involving dual Irish-US citizen who had to travel to the
UK to terminate her non-viable pregnancy – the Committee called on the
government to allow women free access to abortion, labelling extant laws
“cruel” and “inhumane”. The Committee also asked authorities to compensate the
woman, 42-year-old Amanda Mellet, for the distress and trauma she experienced.
Ms. Mallet travelled to the UK for
an abortion in late 2011. She told the Committee she experienced immense
emotional and psychological distress as a result of having to go abroad for the
procedure.
The Committee called on the
government to reform the abortion law to protect women in the future: “…the
State party should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy,
including if necessary its Constitution, to ensure compliance with the
Covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy
termination in Ireland, and take measures to ensure that health-care providers
are in a position to supply full information on safe abortion services without
fearing being subjected to criminal sanctions”.
Amnesty International welcomed the
ruling, and renewed their campaign for legislative reform.
"The Irish government must take
its head out of the sand and see that it has to tackle this issue," said Amnesty’s
head of Ireland, Colm O'Gorman.
Yet some see the ruling as deeply
political, and an attempt to bully the country into legislative change. Writing
for The American Spectator, Daniel J. Flynn stridently criticized the Committee’s
“ideological” ruling:
“In the
name of human rights, the United Nations orders Ireland to repeal the right to
life embedded in the Catholic country’s Constitution. Will they next command
governments to supply muzzles to silence nonconformists in the name of freedom
of speech?”
Abortion is permitted in Ireland
only when there is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman. Pro-choice organizations
are currently lobbying the government to broaden this provision to include
cases of rape, incest, inevitable miscarriage and fatal fetal abnormality.
http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/un-calls-on-ireland-to-change-abortion-law/11917
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