A CALL to legalise abortion in Ireland by a Council of Europe committee was strongly criticised by pro-life campaigners in Ireland last night.
"Clearly the council's Committee on Equal Opportunities has chosen to ignore the humanity of the unborn child and the negative effects of abortion on women," said Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign.
Ms Cullen said people "shouldn't heed" the call which she said appeared to ignore the "latest UN report (2007) on maternal mortality which found that of all 171 recorded, Ireland without abortion, is the safest country in the world for mothers during pregnancy."
The committee's report, Access to safe and legal Abortion in Europe, published earlier this week, calls for the council's parliamentary assembly to invite the member states to decriminalise abortion.
"A ban on abortions does not result in fewer abortions, but mainly leads to clandestine abortions, which are more traumatic and more dangerous," it says.
The report contains a draft resolution for the parliamentary assembly, inviting member states to "decriminalise abortion if they have not already done so".
States are urged to "guarantee women's effective exercise of their right to abortion; allow women freedom of choice and offer the conditions of a free and enlightened choice".
Other provisions call on members to "lift restrictions which hinder, de jure or de facto, access to safe abortion".
"Abortion should not be banned," the report continues.
The draft resolution asks the assembly to affirm the right of all human beings, women included, to respect their physical integrity and to control their own bodies.
"The ultimate decision on whether or not to have an abortion should be a matter for the woman concerned, and she should have the means of exercising this right in an effective way," it adds.
"To my knowledge, the assembly has never adopted a resolution or a recommendation on abortion as such," Gisela Wurm, a member of the socialist group in Austria, says in the report.
Ireland is mentioned by Mrs Wurm, who says: "Abortion on request is, in theory, available in all Council of Europe member states, except Andorra, Malta, Ireland and Poland."
Many women, she says, "will seek an abortion, even if abortion is illegal in their country".
Some would travel to other countries, but others, who could not afford this "abortion tourism", would resort to unsafe "backstreet abortions," she says.
"I would thus plead for a more open attitude towards abortion," Mrs Wurm states.
