Ireland Reconsiders Its Constitutional Ban on Abortion
And last year, a United Nations committee ruled that Ireland had violated a woman’s rights by forcing her to travel abroad for an abortion even though severe congenital defects had been diagnosed in the fetus. Legal uncertainty over how to define “the unborn” has long dogged the amendment, and the assembly was seen as one response to the panel’s criticisms.
It is common for women in Ireland to travel to countries such as Britain and the Netherlands for abortions. Figures from Britain’s National Health Service showed that more than 3,400 women gave Irish addresses to British abortions clinics in 2015.
That said, Ireland remains a conservative society, and the Roman Catholic Church opposes any change in the law. “We believe that every unborn child, irrespective of his or her medical condition or the circumstances of his or her birth, has the right to be treated equally before the law,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement.
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