The father of a pregnant teenager took High Court action to prevent her being taken to the UK for an abortion in 1994. Full details have emerged for the first time of the court case, which along with the X and C cases is at least the third time the High Court has been involved with a pregnant teenager wanting an abortion since the 1983 abortion referendum.
There was no final judgment in this 1994 in camera case as it was withdrawn in mid-hearing, The Irish Times has learned. The details have emerged only now.
The psychiatrist yesterday said the therapy used was "brief focal psychotherapy" that averted what could have been another X or C case. It concerned a 15-year-old girl pregnant as a result of suspected incest, though this was never confirmed and later denied by the girl.
She made a suicide attempt, and her mother wanted to take her to England for an abortion. Her father opposed this and sought to have the girl made a ward of court.
The hearing began before the then President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, and he was considering making the girl a ward of court when her mother said she no longer wanted to take the girl for an abortion, and the case did not proceed.
The story began in April 1994, when the Evening Herald published a public appeal from the girl's mother to the Eastern Health Board to take the girl into care as she suspected the girl's father, from whom the mother was separated, was abusing her. A complaint of abuse against the father was made by another family member. The mother claimed the girl seemed "to be under her father's spell".
On May 4th another story appeared saying the girl had fled from her mother's home with her father, and had been found the previous night by the health board in a flat with him in Dublin. The board then took her into care and placed her in a residential home. It was discovered that she was pregnant and she took an overdose.
Because the girl had attempted suicide she was taken to see a psychiatrist in hospital. The psychiatrist told The Irish Times yesterday said the girl was being pressurised by her mother into making suicidal statements, adding: "I saw her several times and she said she'd rather keep the baby". After two weeks of intensive therapy the girl decided she did not want an abortion. She told the psychiatrist her father was not her child's father.
Meanwhile, the girl's father sought the High Court wardship hearing. While the case was going on the girl told her mother she no longer wanted an abortion. Her mother dropped her intention to take her to England, and the wardship proceedings were withdrawn.
News of the case had started to leak out. It was raised in the Dáil by TDs Mr Proinsias de Rossa and Ms Liz O'Donnell in the context of asking the then Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, when he was going to introduce legislation on the right to travel and information, in the light of the passing of a referendum two years earlier.
Mr Reynolds refused to discuss a case being held in camera. The Dáil went into recess that week and the issue never resurfaced. The girl had her baby, and, the psychiatrist said, when last seen some years ago she was doing well.