It is vitally important that the newly announced expert group on
abortion keeps in focus the duty of care to both mother and baby during
pregnancy and the ethical distinction between medical treatments in
pregnancy and induced abortion, said the Pro Life campaign.
They were responding to the government’s announcement that it would
establish an expert group on abortion in response to last December’s
decision of the European Court of Human Rights.
In an abortion test
case, ABC -v- Ireland, the court ruled that Ireland had failed to
properly implement the constitutional right to abortion established in
the 1992 Supreme Court X case.
The case involved a woman with cancer who
wished to terminate her pregnancy and had to travel to the UK to do so.
She alleged that Ireland’s abortion laws breached her rights under the
European Convention of Human Rights.
Under procedures laid down in the Court, the Government had six
months to prepare a plan outlining the actions it had taken to execute
the judgment and actions that it intended to take.
On Thursday it published its plan which involves the setting up of an
expert group “drawing on appropriate medical and legal expertise with a
view to making recommendations to Government on how this matter should
be properly addressed”.
Pro choice groups were critical of the government plan and called for
the Government to legislate immediately to clarify the circumstances
when women can have an abortion.
Niall Behan, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning
Association, said the decision “delays the implementation of the ABC -v-
Ireland judgment. When it comes to abortion to protect women’s life and
health, the Government is in danger of falling into the same pattern of
inaction adopted by past governments.”
However Dr Ruth Cullen from the Pro Life campaign said that the
European Court ruling in ABC -v- Ireland did not say that “Ireland must
legislate to provide for abortion here” but rather to “clarify its law
on abortion which is an entirely different thing than saying we must
legislate for abortion.”
Dr Cullen also pointed out that Ireland, without abortion, is listed
by the World Health Organisation as the safest country in the world for
pregnant women.
She said that following the ECHR decision in December, pro-choice
groups had sought to blur the distinction between necessary medical
treatments in pregnancy and induced abortion, (where the intention of
the procedure is to end the life of the baby).
“It is vitally important that the expert group keeps in focus the
duty of care to both mother and baby during pregnancy and the ethical
distinction between medical treatments in pregnancy and induced
abortion.”
Before the General Election, Fine Gael gave a commitment not to
legislate for abortion while the Labour Party stated openly that it
would introduce legislation to allow abortions take place in Ireland.
Dr Cullen suggested that the establishment of the expert group did not
preclude an Oireachtas all-party committee from also having an input, in
keeping with Fine Gael’s promise before the general election that the
abortion issue would be examined in a fully democratic and accountable
manner.