Pressure increases for new abortion referendum in Ireland

New committee appointed to examine existing laws

ANTOINETTE KELLY,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, December 2, 2011, 8:15 AM

Updated Friday, December 2, 2011, 8:15 AM

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A pro-choice rally in Dublin

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The European Court of Human Rights has increased pressure on the Irish government to re-examine their abortion laws.

In response, the Irish government has announced that it will establish an expert group to examine how to deal with a damning judgment made against Ireland last December.

This will be the fourth group set up in Ireland to make recommendations on Ireland’s abortion laws and they could potentially recommend another referendum on the issue.

Last December, the court found that the rights of a Lithuanian woman, known only as "C", who was suffering from a rare form of cancer and forced to travel from Ireland to Britain for an abortion, had been violated.
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The court found that travelling abroad for an abortion was a significant psychological, physical, and financial burden on women.

The ECHR has called on Ireland to establish in what circumstances abortion is considered legal in Ireland.

Irish health minister James Reilly plans to name the 14-member group by the end of the year. The group is expected to be made up of medical and legal professionals and will examine various ways in which Ireland can comply with the European ruling.

Meanwhile a new study published by BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, shows that countries with restricted access to abortion do not have lower termination rates.

Nster.com

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DanOLoingsigh | Dec 05, 2011, 02:26 AM EST

Pittsburghkid…I take it you’re a man? I doubt any woman would blame her gender for failing to repopulate her nation. Courts have to decide where there are competing rights. I don’t think young lives should be ruined, physically or mentally, on account of a blanket prohibition of abortion. Prohibiting it won’t stop it happening (think Prohibition era with alcohol). Recognise that other people have rights too, and they don’t all share your values. Don’t follow the likes of Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, AZ, who excommunicated the members of the ethics committee at St Josephs Hospital, Phoenix, (including Mercy Sister Margaret McBride) for allowing a ‘life saving’ abortion after Doctors at the hospital said her risk of death was close to 100% if she continued with the pregnancy? Don’t let ANY religious or moral zealots, Muslim, Jew or Christian, make THEIR OWN LAWS and expect everyone else to live by them; support freedom of choice.

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Pittsburghkid | Dec 03, 2011, 12:30 PM EST

Abortion has ruined America. Today American Woman are not providing enough babies making it necessary to rely on immigratants. The immigrants do not want to adopt American Culture. the Muslims want to colonize America with their colonies in Detroit, and Tenn. They want to establish their own laws in segregated communities. The Mexicans want to reclaim the Southwest, and benefit from Diversity quota against hiring whites. American culture is dying because of the inability to reproduce itself. Ireland is already feeling the sting from the Arfican Immigrants in Ireland. Abortion will kill Irish Culture. The Africans, and Muslims will establish their own failed cultures. If their cultures weren't failures then why are they in Ireland? I must correct myself their cultures were not complete failures. They can reproduce themselvies.

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lokionline | Dec 02, 2011, 11:13 PM EST

I think it is clear that the opinions in Ireland about abortion are evolving just as are opinions about Euthanasia are changing as reported among Irish medical students.

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vincentruane | Dec 02, 2011, 09:36 PM EST

How can the European Court of Human Rights claim killing a weak and defenseless growing human being by abortion should be a human right. Since the unborn child is a human being he or she is entitled to his or her human rights too. It is a sad but horrible truth that the abortion holocaust has killed more European People than the brutal past regimes of evil of Hitler, and Stalin combined. It is a equally sad fact that so many journalists turn a blind eye to the evil brutality involved in the killing of many of these weak and defenseless growing human beings, who should be safe in their Mother's womb. The European Court of Human Rights should be renamed 'The European Court of Child Abuse.' if it is supporting the killing of weak and defenseless growing human beings through so called abortion. Are these the same Europeans who tried to deny Europes Christian past?

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