THE PRO-LIFE Campaign has accused pro-choice campaigners of creating unnecessary fears about women’s health in a case to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights.
Three unnamed women claim that limits on abortion in Ireland have violated their human rights by forcing them to travel abroad to terminate their pregnancies and restricting their access to post-abortion care and counselling.
The Strasbourg-based court is considering the admissibility of a legal challenge by the women, known as A, B and C. Their cases are supported by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA).
Yesterday, the Pro-Life Campaign – which has lodged submission on the case to the European court – accused the IFPA of ignoring the fact that Ireland without abortion is the safest country in the world in which to be pregnant.
Its spokeswoman, Dr Berry Kiely, said: “Women are safer in Ireland when pregnant than countries like Britain and Holland, which allow abortion on demand. It is most unfortunate that those seeking to have abortion legalised here would have us believe that the opposite is true.”
The organisation also claimed the IFPA was “completely out of step” with the most recent evidence showing the long-term negative effects of abortion for women.
Dr Kiely said a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry last December found that women who have abortions are up to 30 per cent more likely to develop mental health problems.
“Instead of seeking to have abortion imposed on this country, the IFPA should respect Ireland’s pro-life ethos, particularly at a time when other countries are beginning to question their unrestricted abortion laws and the way such laws undermine basic respect for the dignity and preciousness of human life,” she said.
The IFPA, however, strongly supports the three women and is hopeful that a ruling in favour of the women will bring pressure to bear on the Government to reform Irish abortion laws. In their legal submissions, the women say abortion restrictions jeopardised their health and wellbeing.
Travelling abroad placed “enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens” upon them, they say. Legal restrictions also created delays and hardships for each of them, resulted in each having a later abortion, at greater risk to their health, the submissions say. Abortion restrictions also interfered with the most intimate aspects of their private and family lives without adequate justification, they say.