Abortion Abroad

Figures published this week showed a decline (for the 8th year in a row) in the number of women travelling from Ireland to the UK for abortions. Despite this latest reduction, over 4,000 women in 2009 were still forced to leave the country in order to avail of a service that should be provided domestically. Ireland must end its exportation of women who require a pregnancy termination and seek to provide services in a sensitive way at home.

Contemporaneous with the release of these figures was a judgement by the Mexican Supreme Court holding that abortion must be provided to victims of rape and that women had the right to avoid forced pregnancies. Interestingly, this is a view that an overwhelming majority of the Irish population would appear to hold according to a survey conducted by the Irish Family Planning Association in March 2010. Yet motivation to liberalise the law in Ireland is conspicuously absent.

However, the European Court of Human Rights is expected to issue of judgement later this year following a challenge to Ireland's abortion law by three women in December 2009. So Ireland may be forced to review and reform its law in the very near future whether it wants to or not.