Women's group warns over 'back-street' abortions

The Well Woman Centre today warned it is only a matter of time before a woman is "seriously damaged" by an illegal back-street abortion.

The organization said it was "not surprised" by reports that the gardaí in Dublin were investigating two alleged incidents of back-street abortions carried out on immigrant women in the past two months.

The centre's chief executive, Ms Alison Begas, told ireland.commany foreign national women were "isolated" in refugee communities here because they could not speak English and had little or no access health services.

Ms Begas said around 15 to 20 women with no spoken English were coming to the Centre a week seeking pregnancy counselling services.

She said the women were mainly from Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and China and often arrived without an interpreter.

Ms Begas said that in some cases women were from countries where abortion was freely available and felt the State was "discriminating against them" by denying them abortions.

Ms Begas said the centre was calling on the Government to establish better translation and interpretation services for immigrants and asylum seekers to allow them access health services.

Gardaí are investigating the case of a Romanian woman who is believed to have paid €500 to a Moldovan woman to carry out an abortion.

The Romanian woman is believed to have seen an advert for "gynaecological services" on a card in a city centre shop.

It is not clear whether the Moldovan woman, who has subsequently left the State, was involved in separate illegal abortion performed on a Filipino woman.

Mr Peter O'Mahony of the Irish Refugee Council said the State had made no effort at integrating immigrants and reports such as these were "the tragic symptoms of exclusion".

Mr O'Mahony said asylum seekers were excluded from the right to work, forced to live separately and were therefore "outside the loop".

He said calling simply for the translation of health literature "misses the point" as there needed to be a comprehensive integration programme for immigrants in Ireland so that they have access to information and services.