Ireland: Laws To Clarify Termination Of Pregnancy When Mother's Life Is At Risk

[Barb135]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/abortion-ireland-laws-clarify-termination_n_2323593.html?utm_hp_ref=world&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk2%26pLid%3D247566

The Irish government announced Tuesday that it will seek a legislative path to making abortion legal in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

The Irish Times reports that the government of the majority Roman Catholic country will introduce a combination of legislation that will redefine abortion's legal status, and enact regulations describing with "clarity and certainty" when doctors can perform an abortion.

The announcement comes just more than a month after Savita Halappanavar, a woman who was having a miscarriage, was refused an abortion and died in an Irish hospital after suffering from blood poisoning.

Halappanavar's death kicked off a wave of public outcry, including a demonstration in which an estimated 10,000 people marched across Dublin to show support for changing Ireland's abortion laws.

"I know that most people have personal views on this matter. However, the government is committed to ensuring that the safety of pregnant women in Ireland is maintained and strengthened. We must fulfil our duty of care towards them," Dr. James Reilly, Ireland's health minister, said in a statement.

Ireland banned abortion under all circumstances in a 1983 constitutional amendment. Nine years later, the ban was challenged and the Supreme Court ruled that termination of pregnancy was permissible when the mother's life was at risk, including from suicide.

According to Reuters, the Irish government has since avoided clarifying the circumstances under which the mother's life could be judged to be at risk, clarity that the new legislation and regulations will seek to provide.

The Guardian reports that the reforms are expected to allow abortions where there is a medical risk to a woman's life or when she is thought to be in danger of killing herself, but it is not clear whether the law will allow for terminations in cases of rape or sexual abuse.

The government is acting on a report from an expert group on abortion, commissioned after a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, according to CNN.

While the reforms are being hailed as a significant step forward by some, other critics said the legislation does not go far enough. In an interview with The Huffington Post UK, Mara Clarke, Director of Abortion Support Network, which helps women in Ireland gain access to abortion, said the changes would not help the most women.

“The vast majority of women who need abortions –- women who’ve been raped, couples whose wanted pregnancies have catastrophic foetal anomalies, women and couples who simply can’t afford a child, or, in most cases, another child –- will still have to travel and pay privately for abortions,” Clarke said.

[Barb135]

We have one clinic in my city that did abortions and there was always protestors sitting along the street with their signs; often you'd see them acting like they were crying, reading their Bibles, etc. It was disgusting.  I had to go by there often (sometimes multiple times/day) when I was still working and every time I did, I wanted to stop and tell them to just "go home and mind your own business".  Last I  heard, the clinic had closed, because of physical threats to the doctor who ran it.  I haven't heard if it reopened or not, and since I'm no longer working, I haven't been by there in a long time.

Here, a D&C would be done in a hospital, and most abortions aren't, so you wouldn't have to walk by the protestors, like you did.  That had to be horrible for you.  

I so agree that people need to think before they react. Even here on CE, we see people spout off about things, when they have no idea who they might hurt.  

[adgal]

We dont have the big abortion debate here on the same level you folks do, but we do get some protests, sign carrying, that sort of thing.  Usually just a handful of people.  Here, abortion is covered under our Nationalized Health Care plan, so it is done in the hospital in the same part you go to if you are having a d&c done for a miscarriage.  Most of you folks know I've had 8 miscarriages, and with 4 of them required a d&c (twice I was hemorraging to the point that it could have been very very serious without a d&c).  So I was not only an emotional wreck, but was in actual physical trouble as well.  I had to walk by these protestors as I was going home and they acted like I had just killed my child.  They just assumed.  And I can tell you that it was a horrific experience emotionally for me - they were horrible people, they truly were.  I'm totally ok with people having their strong opinions and personal moral/value system, but they need to think before they react I think.  I see this situation as the same - if this procedure were outlawed where I live, I could very well have been in the same shoes as the women in the story.  It hits home for me.

[MrsPincince]

"I'm glad to see this being addressed."

Me too!  

[Barb135]

I didn't follow the case, but have to agree, a D&C is not the same as termination.

As OH said - ironic....... a country that banned all abortion has now come full circle and has realized that there are instances, in which it's warranted.

Tragic that lives had to be lost to bring them around.  I can't imagine a mother with other children, being sacrificed because it's illegal to terminate a pregnancy that will take her life.

[adgal]

I'm glad to see this being addressed.  I remember following this story...this poor women lost her life, it was awful.  And honestly, how anyone can compare a d&c to a termination is beyond me.  Not even remotely the same thing, even if the actual procedure is the same.

[Barb135]

I thought so, too, since Ireland banned all abortion in 1983 and is now bringing it back....... shouldn't that teach our legislators "something"?

[orphanedhawk]

How ironic.

[Barb135]

Ireland's moving forward, while some of our legislators want to set us back.