Ireland prepares to sign off draft abortion bill
A week after the inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar, the Irish cabinet is preparing the terms of the abortion bill, which is expected to permit an abortion if the mother’s life is at risk.
Ireland’s coalition government is preparing to sign off draft legislation detailing the limited scenarios where women will be legally allowed abortions for the first time – namely when there is a threat to the mother’s life, and including suicide.
The historic move has already divided the main Fine Gael party, with some backbenchers saying they will vote against the move if it includes a clause for suicide as grounds for abortion.
The legislation was supposed to be finalised at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, but it ended without agreement. Channel 4 News was told that another meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening.
The Labour party’s deputy prime minister Eamon Gilmore insisted on Monday that the government would push ahead.
“The government has already settled on an approach to this issue and the approach will be decided by cabinet this week – the content of the legislation,” he said.
“This is always an area that is complex but at the end of the day, it’s about providing safety, it’s providing certainty for women and we intend to legislate to that effect.”
Abortion abroad
Around 85 women a week leave the Ireland to have an abortion in England or Wales. In Northern Ireland, where abortion is only permitted if the mother’s life is at risk, around 21 women travel to England or Wales to have an abortion, according to the most recent figures.
The move comes a week after the end of the inquest into the death of dentist Savita Halappanavar, who died in a Galway hospital last October after being refused an abortion.
Her death put Ireland’s strict abortion laws in the global spotlight and the government promised to reform the current abortion legislation.
The Fine-Gael/Labour government has already been subject to EU pressure, after the European court of human rights ruled that the Irish ban on abortion violated a pregnant cancer patient’s right to life.
The government has also failed to implement a 1992 Irish supreme court ruling in the now-famous X case, which found that abortion was legal under the Irish constitution if the mother’s life was at risk – including from the threat of suicide.
The X case involved a 14-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped.