UN: Ireland's abortion ban is cruel, discriminatory to women
Source: Associated Press
UN: Ireland's abortion ban is cruel, discriminatory to women
Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press
Updated 6:18 pm, Thursday, June 9, 2016
DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland's abortion ban subjects women to discriminatory, cruel and degrading treatment and should be ended immediately for cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities, U.N. human rights experts said Thursday.
The 29-page report from the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Committee accepted a complaint filed by Amanda Mellet, a Dublin woman who was denied a 2011 abortion in Ireland after doctors informed her that her fetus had a heart defect and could not survive outside the womb.
Ireland permits abortions only in cases where the woman's own life is endangered by continued pregnancy. Its ban on abortion in all other circumstances requires women to carry a physiologically doomed fetus until birth or its death in the womb. The only other option is to travel abroad for abortions, usually to England, where thousands of Irish citizens have abortions annually.
The Human Rights Committee, composed of experts from 17 nations led by Fabian Salvioli of Argentina, found that Ireland's abortion law violates the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and called for widespread reform.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/medical/article/UN-Ireland-s-abortion-ban-is-cruel-7972422.php
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