A 17-year-old pregnant girl has begun a High Court challenge to a decision by the Health Service Executive to stop her from travelling to Britain for an abortion.
The girl, who is four months pregnant, learned last week that the foetus she is carrying suffers from a brain condition and would have a life expectancy of three days.
Her application was outlined yesterday to Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, who adjourned it to today to allow the HSE and State to be notified of it.
The girl, who can only be identified as "Miss D" and is from the Leinster region, has been in the care of the HSE since last February.
Her lawyers were asked yesterday to consider whether her mother should be told of her application.
The court was told that Miss D had not considered abortion until she learned the "very unfortunate news" last week that the foetus suffers from anencephaly, the judge was told by her counsel, Gerard Hogan SC. The action was very urgent, he stressed.
Anencephaly is a head disorder resulting from a neural tube defect resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull and scalp. The life prognosis after birth for babies with anencephaly is a maximum of three days, Mr Hogan said.
The girl wants the court to allow her bring a legal action to prevent the HSE restraining her leaving the country for an abortion unless she presented as a suicide risk. Miss D says she was told by the HSE that it had contacted the gardaí to request that she not be permitted to leave the State and she wants the court to direct the HSE to advise the gardaí that it agrees to her travelling to the UK.
The Alliance for Choice said the HSE's refusal to permit a young woman in their custody to terminate her non-viable pregnancy was consistent with the hypocrisy exhibited by successive Irish governments.
Its spokeswoman, Dr Mary Muldowney, said: "The HSE must retract their callous approach to D's tragic case and facilitate her choice for a termination. She cannot afford any further delay and the Irish people will not thank the HSE or the Government for again brutalising a young woman in their name."
Citizens have voted in five referendums on abortion, the first in 1983 when the Constitution was amended to protect the right to life of the unborn; the second in three parts in 1992, following which the right to travel for abortion and to obtain information on abortion were enshrined in the Constitution; and the third in 2002 which proposed to remove the threat of suicide as a grounds for legal abortion. This amendment was defeated by a small majority.