Abortion in Ireland
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The subject of abortion has had a controversial history in Ireland, and remains a controversial subject today.
Constitutional Issues: Ireland & the Abortion Debate
At independence, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act remained in force, maintaining all abortions to be illegal and subject to punishment. In response to the 1967 legalisation of abortion in Britain and the subsequent rise in the numbers of Irish women travelling to Britain each year to obtain an abortion, anti-abortion groups in Ireland began to press for an explicit amendment to the Irish constitution banning abortion. In 1983, the Republic of Ireland by referendum amended the Constitution of Ireland to add in what became generally known as the 'Pro Life Amendment', which asserted that the fetus/foetus had an explicit right to life equal to that of its mother, with the Irish state guaranteeing to 'vindicate' that right. In the referendum, the case for the amendment was argued by the main opposition party, the Roman Catholic Church, some Protestant church leaders and an pro-life lobby group called the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) (which had campaigned for the amendment, arguing that the Irish Courts could theoretically face their own Roe v. Wade court case) while the case against was put by a pro-choice lobby group called the Anti-Amendment Campaign, which included future President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. The arguments against the amendment were also put by the then Irish government, most mainstream protestant leaders and a minority of catholics. In the debate, no one actually advocated the legalisation of abortion.
While the 'Pro-Life Amendment' established the principle of the 'right to life of the unborn, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother' in Irish constitutional law, practical problems subsequently arose with its meaning. In 1992, a major controversy erupted over the issue of whether a suicidal minor who was a statutory rape victim, and who became pregnant, could leave Ireland for an abortion that is lawful in another country (Attorney General v. X, known as the 'X Case'). The Supreme Court interpreted the Pro-Life Amendment as giving a right to abortion in certain limited circumstances, in a judgment which came to be known as the 'X Case,' including when the mother's life was in danger.
Court injunctions issued in 1988 and 1990 under the 1983 amendment barred family planning groups and student groups from offering abortion counseling, information and aid in travelling to Britain to procure abortions. These injunctions grew increasingly unpopular, particularly after the 'X case.' Questions were also raised as to whether the bans on access to information violated provisions in the Maastricht Treaty. Two constitutional amendments were subsequently added in 1993 that guaranteed the 'right to travel' and the 'right to information' (a third amendment that would have defined when abortions could be considered legal was defeated). Due to questions about the constitutionality of the amendments, the changes did not come into force until 1995.
The issue of what form of constitutional prohibition on abortion Ireland should have (if any) has been revisited in a number of referenda, but no clear result or consensus has emerged, other than, whatever about the practicalities, in theory most Irish voters believe that a 'foetus' has a right to life equal to that of its mother, so excluding the option of choosing abortion, except in the limited grounds decided upon judicially in the 'X Case' judgment, which the Irish people in referenda have refused to narrow when offered that option.
It should be noted that, in theory, Abortion is legal in Ireland if there is a risk to the life of the mother. A provision exists in the Irish constitution to allow Dail Eireann to legislate on this, however no political party has risked it, and in the meantime, while it is legal in theory, the body that holds medical licences in Ireland considers it malpractice for any doctor to perform an abortion.
Northern Ireland
Abortion is not uniformly legal throughout the United Kingdom. It remains illegal in the Northern Ireland, except under certain limited exceptions. This is true because Stormont still had jurisdiction when the British Parliament reformed its laws in 1967. Abortions in Northern Ireland remain subject to the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Act of 1945 (and possibly to the Bourne Ruling of 1938).
Efforts to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland have been frustrated by overwhelming opposition from both communities, from the Roman Catholic Church on the nationalist side to the Rev. Ian Paisley, the leader of the protestant Democratic Unionist Party, on the Unionist side. Even the cross-community Northern Ireland Women's Coalition has declined to support a change in the law on abortion in Northern Ireland. About 1,500 women a year travel from Northern Ireland to Great Britain for an abortion. Between 1967 and 2002 five women are known to have died from illegal abortions in Northern Ireland.
