European Tribune - Forcing women to give birth to corpses

Forcing women to give birth to corpses

by Kevin Lyda
Tue May 1st, 2007 at 05:29:31 AM EST

(Also posted on Daily Kos)

There is now the "D case" in Ireland regarding abortion. Essentially a 17 year old woman is 4 months pregnant and her foetus will not properly develop a brain. If the child is born alive (unlikely) the child will die within a few days at most. More likely is that she'll give birth to a corpse. Since she is not suicidal and is under the care of the HSE (the Health Services Executive), they are attempting to ban her travel to the UK.

This link covers abortion cases in Ireland. The "C case" (scroll down to 1998) where a pregnant 13 year old was almost prevented from leaving the State to get an abortion. Since she was suicidal she was allowed - this was due to the X case (scoll down to 1992 in the previous link) where a woman was allowed to terminate because she was suicidal.

A friend of mine who is leaving Ireland is considering drawing up a certificate showing that she isn't pregnant and sending a letter to the HSE asking if she's permitted to travel. I hope more Irish women do the same when they travel.

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Forcing women to give birth to corpses | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Forcing women to give birth to corpses (4.00 / 2)

As discussed last night.

I am correct in saying that the HSE feel they're at risk of committing a crime if they allow her to travel?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:01:11 AM EST

Re: Forcing women to give birth to corpses (none / 1)

Who is going to sue them? Will they get prosecuted statutorily by the State?

Bush is a symptom, not the disease.

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:02:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Forcing women to give birth to corpses (none / 1)

Could be. It would be at the discretion of the attorney general, and it's quite possible that the case would be drawn to his attention or to the attention of the Gardaí. You're talking about a pretty risk adverse set of civil servants.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:08:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Forcing women to give birth to corpses (none / 1)

Thanks for the diary and the link to abortion cases, Kevin. There was some discussion of this case in last night's Open Thread.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:05:04 AM EST

Re: Forcing women to give birth to corpses (none / 1)

I see I was beaten to it.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 06:05:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Hah! (4.00 / 3)

Looks like they're in full panic mode: full case to be heard on Thursday, and the Attorney General is saying that the State - who he represents - doesn't have the power to prevent anyone travelling for that reason, that the HSE can't tell the police to stop her travelling and the the Gardaí can't stop her anyway.

Didn't think they'd want this becoming an election issue.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue May 1st, 2007 at 09:55:14 AM EST

Forcing women to give birth to corpses | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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