Thursday, January 28, 2010

IFPA Welcomes International Scrutiny of Ireland's Restrictive Abortion Laws in new Human Rights Watch Report

Press Release - 28 January 2010

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has today (28.01.10) welcomed the publication of the Human Rights Watch report A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland.

The IFPA is not surprised that the Irish Government has been criticised by this important international human rights group. As a service provider IFPA has extensive knowledge of the extreme physical, financial and emotional hardship experienced by women who are forced to travel abroad for health care that should be available to them at home. According to the IFPA, the criminalisation of abortion in Ireland violates international human rights standards because it disproportionately harms women's health and well-being. T

he organisation believes that women and girls do not give up their human rights when they become pregnant nor should the State take these human rights away with impunity.

The experiences of women outlined in the Human Rights Watch report are illustrative of the reality faced by thousands of women in Ireland. Since 1980, at least 138,000 women have been forced to travel abroad to access safe and legal abortion services.

The IFPA believes that the criminalisation of abortion has little impact on abortion rates, it merely adds to the burden and stress experienced by women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

Ireland’s restrictive laws on abortion are out of step with those of its European neighbours. Forty four out of 47 European countries provide for abortion to protect women’s health.

This is the second time in the last two months that Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws have been scrutinised by international human rights bodies. In December the European Court of Human Rights heard a challenge to Ireland’s abortion laws.

According to the IFPA, Ireland has a strong reputation for promoting human rights values around the world, yet it is unwilling to recognise the human rights of women in its own country. Ireland’s restrictions on abortion put it firmly outside of human rights norms.

The IFPA has called on the Government to take responsibility and stop exiling women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

ENDS

Human Rights Watch: Ireland: Abortion Limits Violate Human Rights

Policies Designed to Sabotage Access Both at Home and Abroad
January 28, 2010

(Dublin, January 28, 2010) - The Irish government actively seeks to restrict access to abortion services and information both within Ireland and for its residents seeking care abroad, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 57-page report, "A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland," details how women struggle to overcome the financial, logistical, physical, and emotional burdens imposed by restrictive laws and policies that force them to seek care abroad, without support from the state. Every year thousands of women and girls travel from Ireland to other European countries for abortions.

"Women in need of abortion services should, as a matter of international law and - frankly -human decency, be able to count on support from their government as they face a difficult situation," said Marianne Mollmann, women's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "But in Ireland they are actively stonewalled, stigmatized, and written out."

In Ireland, abortion is legally restricted in almost all circumstances, with potential penalties of penal servitude for life for both patients and service providers, except where the pregnant woman's life is in danger, but there is little legal and policy guidance on when, specifically, an abortion might be legally performed within Ireland. As a result, some doctors are reluctant even to provide pre-natal screening for severe fetal abnormalities, and very few - if any - women have access to legal abortions at home. The government has indicated that it has no current plans to clarify the possible reach of the criminal penalties. The government does not keep figures on legal and illegal abortions carried out in Ireland, or on the number of women traveling abroad for services.

"Irish law on abortion is in and of itself an affront to human rights," Mollmann said. "But it is made worse by the fact that even those who may qualify for a legal abortion in Ireland cannot get one due to deliberately murky policies that carry an implied threat of prosecution."

But women also face more active sabotaging of their health decisions by the state. Throughout the last two decades, the Irish government has used injunctions to prevent individuals from traveling abroad for abortion. As recently as 2007, a 17-year-old girl in the custody of the Health Services Executive had to go to court to get permission to travel to the United Kingdom for an abortion.

Organizations that provide information on how to access abortion services abroad face restrictions on when and how this information can legally be conveyed, under threat of penalties. And the government does nothing to prevent "rogue" agencies that represent themselves as providers of information about abortion from circulating blatantly misleading and false information.

"Women should not have to make decisions about their health and lives based on lies," Mollmann said. "Yet the law leaves ‘rogue' agencies unregulated and threatens honest service providers with fines or worse if they help a distressed woman make a phone call to a clinic abroad."

© Copyright 2010, Human Rights Watch

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Guardian: Summary of the Irish abortion legislation report

by Alexandra Topping
Thursday 28 January 2010

What Human Rights Watch discovered in its investigations of abortion laws and pro-life groups in Ireland


The Human Rights Watch report A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland accuses the Irish government of limiting information about how to access abortion services abroad.

According to the report, "rogue" agencies, representing themselves as providers of information about abortion, have told women that, should they choose to have an abortion, their relationships are likely to fail, that they may become infertile or need a hysterectomy, or a colostomy bag after the procedure.

Sinead Ahern from Choice Ireland, a pro-choice group, went undercover to visit an agency. Having told the woman that she was five weeks pregnant, at which point her foetus would have been the size of a grain of rice, she was shown a plastic fetus the size of a pen.

"[The woman] told me that's what my baby looked like … the plastic foetus was sucking its thumb and had eyelashes."

She described being asked to sign a consent form. "It said I understand that I most certainly will need a hysterectomy ... that I might end up with the need for a colostomy bag ... [it said] most women end up with infections, infertile."

Another woman who visited an agency with her boyfriend described being separated from him. "They said I'd probably never have kids [if I had an abortion] that we'd probably split up … They said your family is going to reject you."

A women who contacted a service called British Alternatives in the Golden Pages [the Irish equivalent of the Yellow Pages] was asked from the start of her consultation about adoption.

"I was devastated I was in this situation and I was afraid of getting a doctor who was unsympathetic [...] Nothing tipped me off about whether they were pro-life. I was in a state and just looking for something friendly. British Alternatives sounded very friendly."

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guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Download the Human Rights Watch Report on Abortion in Ireland

The Human Rights Watch report 'A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland' launched today (28th January 2010) in Dublin
can be downloaded at: http://www.hrw.org/node/87910

Guardian: Ireland accused of 'grossly misleading' women over abortion risks

by Alexandra Topping

Thursday 28 January 2010 13.27 GMT


Human rights group says women seeking information about terminations are told they will often cause irreparable damage


The Irish government came under increasing pressure to overhaul its ban on abortion today, after it was accused of exposing women to "grossly misleading" information about the procedure.

According to Human Rights Watch, Irish legislation – under which women who have an abortion in Ireland face a life sentence in prison if prosecuted – is putting women's health at risk and exposing them to deliberate misinformation from rogue pro-life agencies.

Women have been told they may become infertile, require a hysterectomy or possibly need a colostomy bag after an abortion by agencies that target women seeking advice about unwanted pregnancies, says the report.

It comes as Ireland waits for a landmark ruling from the European court of human rights on the case of three women who accuse the government of putting their health at risk by forcing them to travel abroad for terminations.

"Women in need of abortion services should, as a matter of international law and human decency, be able to count on support from their government as they face a difficult situation," said Marianne Mollmann, the women's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "But in Ireland they are actively stonewalled, stigmatised, and written out."

According to the report, the government limits information about legal abortion services and has failed to crack down on false claims from "rogue" agencies masquerading as unwanted pregnancy support groups.

One 29-year-old woman was shown a video of ultrasound images and pictures of mothers by an agency called "British Alternatives".

"[The woman] put a model of a small foetus in my hand ... told me to name my baby, asked me how I would feel if I killed the baby," she said.

Another woman described being harassed over the phone by a pro-life agency for weeks: "They would ask 'Is your baby still alive? Have you killed it yet?'."

The Irish government recently launched a campaign urging women who feel that have been given false information about abortions to inform the authorities, but this assumes that women have access to the correct information, said Mollmann.

"This is abdicating their responsibility and putting it on the shoulders of already distressed women. The government needs to take decisive action to shut down and prosecute these rogue agencies," she said.

It is currently illegal to have an abortion in Ireland under any circumstances, unless the life of the pregnant woman is at risk, although women have the legal right to terminate their pregnancy abroad.

According to UK Department of Health figures, 4,600 women who had abortions in the UK in 2008 gave Irish addresses, but the real number of Irish women having terminations is likely to be significantly higher, said Mollmann.

"This law does not stop women getting abortions but it does prevent them getting one in a timely manner, which increases the risk involved," she said.

The difficult economic situation in Ireland is making it increasingly difficult for some women to meet the cost of an abortion, estimated by HRW at between €800 and €1000 (£690 and £862) for the procedure and travel costs, said Niall Behan, CEO of the Irish Family Planning Association.

"We are increasingly seeing women who can't travel being forced to look at other options that are not safe. There is evidence to suggest that women are having illegal abortions, not on a huge scale, but on any scale is unacceptable," he said.

The Pro-Life Campaign in Ireland has previously accused the IFPA of creating unnecessary fears about women's health and argues that Ireland without abortion is the safest country in the world in which to be pregnant.

In the case currently before the European court , three women, known as A, B and C, are arguing their right to privacy and family life have been violated.

One of the women who had a termination became pregnant while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer and feared for her health and that of her child. Another is a former alcoholic and drug addict whose four children were in care. She feared her pregnancy would prevent her getting her children back, and borrowed cash from a money lender to finance the termination. A judgment is expected in the autumn.

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Cork Women's Right to Choose Group welcomes publication of Human Rights Watch Report on Abortion in Ireland

Press Release
Cork Women’s Right to Choose Group

Issued: Thursday 28th January, 2010 at 11.00am

Cork Women’s Right to Choose Group today welcomed the publication of the Human Rights Watch report “A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland.”

Spokeswoman Dr Sandra McAvoy said:

“The report does not just set out in legal language how Ireland is in breach of international human rights law. It demonstrates, in their own words, how real women’s health and well-being suffer because our government is blind to their needs. We are not talking small numbers. At least 140,000 Irish women have had abortions, have had the stress of a crisis pregnancy, from whatever cause, and then the stress of raising money and travelling abroad.

“The report lays out what an abortion costs, close to €1,000 after 15 weeks. On top of that there is travel cost, accommodation and childcare, if you have children. A waitress is quoted about how she was ‘so broke, I was up to my eyeballs in debt’ another woman talks about the stress of raising money, ‘there was panic over the money – there was a lot of panic.’ It talks about women going to loan sharks, with the threat of violence if they can’t pay back, and about women forced to continue pregnancies because they cannot afford to travel. The report shows that the situation is even more difficult for Traveller women and for asylum seekers whose allowance is €19.10 a week.

“Women talk about being made to feel they are doing something criminal because the penalty for having an abortion here is up to life imprisonment. One talks about ‘having to lie to everyone … the lies and the shame make you feel like you’re doing something really wrong, like a drug dealer.’ Abortion is available as a health service in other European countries and women in Ireland face the same health and pregnancy problems as their European sisters. Having an abortion has to be decriminalised.

“Other women talk about the lies they were told about abortion in rogue agencies, the activities of which have been known for at least a decade but on which the government has resisted taking action, though counselling services that provide genuine information are strictly regulated.

“The message is clear. This report and the three cases taken by Irish women to the European Court of Human Rights demonstrate that successive governments have been blind to real women’s needs. For thirty years they have been too much under the influence of anti-abortion lobbying groups, they deserve to have their failure to protect women’s health and well-being women exposed to international scrutiny. Making abortion illegal does not stop it happening, it simply makes it more stressful and dangerous. We call on the government to take the recommendations in the report seriously, to redress the balance, and begin to protect real, live women’s interests.”
Release ends.

Irish Examiner: Rights body calls for legalised abortion

By Catherine Shanahan

Thursday, January 28, 2010


ONE of the world’s leading human rights organisations has called on the Government to decriminalise abortion.


In a report by Human Rights Watch, the Government is accused of violating a long list of human rights in its treatment of abortion and related issues including "health, information, privacy, freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, life, equal protection under the law, and nondiscrimination".

Entitled A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland, the report says the actions of the Government in the face of the "need for abortion" have been "erratic and divisive" and it calls for a change to its restrictive abortion laws to meet its obligations under international law.

Last week, the results of an Irish Examiner/Red C poll found two-thirds of 18- 34-year-olds believe abortion should be legalised in Ireland.

The document urges the Government to take "immediate steps toward decriminalising all abortion for women living in Ireland", and it criticises the Government for doing "little to mitigate the effects of a condemnatory public discourse on abortion".

The report, which will be launched in Dublin today, was partially leaked on LifeSiteNews.com, an online news service set up by Canadian pro-life organisation, Campaign Life Coalition.

The website accuses Human Rights Watch of promoting the "right" to abortion and claims it "advises the elimination of other civil rights" because "it urges that doctors be legally obliged to refer their patients to an abortionist, that publicly funded health institutions be required to have an abortionist on staff, and even that conscientious objection be limited "to individual medical staff, excluding institutions and administrative staff’."

LifeSiteNews.com also reports that Human Rights Watch bases its plea for a change in the Irish abortion laws on grounds that "authoritative interpretations of international law recognise that obtaining a safe and legal abortion is crucial to women’s effective enjoyment and exercise of their human rights".

Abortion is illegal in Ireland except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life (as distinct from the health) of the mother.

This includes a risk arising from a threat of suicide.

Women can travel abroad to get an abortion and it is lawful to provide information about abortions abroad, subject to strict conditions. It is not legal to encourage or advocate an abortion in individual cases.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, January 28, 2010

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