Abortion in Ireland

Abortion in Ireland has had a controversial history and remains a disputed subject today. Abortion is effectively illegal in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The abortion debate in the Republic of Ireland
At independence, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act remained in force, maintaining all abortions to be illegal and subject to punishment. In response to the 1967 legalisation of abortion in the United Kingdom and the subsequent rise in the numbers of Irish women travelling to the UK each year to obtain an abortion, pro-life groups in Ireland began to press for an explicit amendment to the Irish constitution banning abortion. In 1983, the Republic of Ireland by referendum amended the Constitution of Ireland to add in what became generally known as the 'Pro Life Amendment', which asserted that the fetus had an explicit right to life from conception, with the Irish State guaranteeing to vindicate that right. In the referendum, the case for the amendment was argued by the main opposition party Fianna Fáil, the Catholic Church, some Protestant church leaders and a pro-life lobby group called the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) (which had campaigned for the amendment, arguing that the Irish Courts could theoretically face their own Roe v. Wade court case) while the case against was put by a pro-choice lobby group called the Anti-Amendment Campaign, which included future President of Ireland Mary Robinson. The arguments against the amendment were also put by the then Irish government led by the centre-right Fine Gael under Garrett FitzGerald, and most mainstream Protestant leaders. In the debate, no one actually advocated the legalisation of abortion.

While the 'Pro-Life Amendment' established the principle of the right to life of the unborn, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother in Irish constitutional law, practical problems subsequently arose with its meaning. In 1992, a major controversy erupted over the issue of whether a suicidal minor who was a statutory rape victim, and who became pregnant, could leave Ireland for an abortion that is lawful in another country (Attorney General v. X, known as the 'X Case'). The Supreme Court interpreted the Pro-Life Amendment as giving a right to abortion in certain limited circumstances, in a judgment which came to be known as the 'X Case,' including when the woman's life was in danger.

Court injunctions issued in 1988 and 1990 under the 1983 amendment barred family planning groups and student groups from offering abortion counseling, information and aid in travelling to Britain to procure abortions. These injunctions grew increasingly unpopular, particularly after the 'X case.' Questions were also raised as to whether the bans on access to information violated provisions in the Maastricht Treaty. Two constitutional amendments were subsequently added in 1993 that guaranteed the 'right to travel' and the 'right to information' (a third amendment that would have defined when abortions could be considered legal was defeated). Due to questions about the constitutionality of the amendments, the changes did not come into force until 1995.

The issue of what form of constitutional prohibition on abortion Ireland should have (if any) has been revisited in a number of referendums, but no clear result or consensus has emerged. In theory, abortion is legal in Ireland if there is a risk to the life of the woman. A provision exists in the Irish constitution to allow Dáil Éireann to legislate on this, however no political party has risked it, and in the meantime, while it is legal in theory, the body that holds medical licences in Ireland considers it malpractice for any doctor to perform an abortion. The Irish Medical Council stated "The deliberate and intentional destruction of the unborn child is professional misconduct. Should a child in utero lose its life as a side-effect of standard medical treatment of the mother, then this is not unethical. Refusal by a doctor to treat a woman with a serious illness because she is pregnant would be grounds for complaint and could be considered to be professional misconduct."

Estimates to the number of Irish women seeking abortions in Britain vary, in the 1990s it is alleged that between 1,500 and 10,000 women who stated in hospital records that they were 'Irish' travel annually. The official figure is 45,000 since 1967. In May 2007, a pregnant 17 year old woman, known only as Miss D, who was pregnant with a foetus suffering from anencephaly was prevented from travelling to Britain by the Health Service Executive. The High Court ruled on May 9th 2007 that she could not be prevented from travelling.

It has never been illegal in Ireland to provide standard medical care to a pregnant woman which may result in an indirect abortion. That is, where the abortion is not the desired outcome of the act, but a side effect of the treatment. The crime under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 occurs when the intention is the deliberate and direct abortion of the child. As with any criminal offence Mens rea must be proved as well as Actus reus

Public opinion in the Republic of Ireland

 * A 1997 Irish Times/MRBI poll found that 18% believe that abortion should never be permitted, 35% that one should be allowed in the event that the woman's life is threatened, 14% if her health is at risk, 28% that "an abortion should be provided to those who need it", and 5% were undecided.
 * A September 2005 Irish Examiner/Lansdowne poll found that 36% believe abortion should be legalized while 47% do not.
 * A June 2007 TNS mrbi poll found that 43% supported legal abortion if a woman believed it was in her best interest, while 51% remained opposed. 82% favoured legalization for cases when the woman's life is in danger, 75% when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb and 73% when the pregnancy results from sexual abuse.

In July 2007 the [Irish Times] readers Head to Head poll asked the question "Is it time to legislate for abortion in Ireland?" the result showed that 62% were against this and voted No. 38% voted yes.

Northern Ireland
Abortion is largely illegal in Northern Ireland, where only seventy to eighty abortions take place legally each year. Abortion is opposed by all the major Northern Irish parties, both unionist and nationalist. Sinn Féin does, however, support a very limited liberalisation of current abortion laws.