Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

U.N. Committee Questions Ireland on its Track Record of Denying Women Access to Safe Abortion Services

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Issues:

Abortion

Regions:

Accountability Bodies, United Nations

Work:

At the United Nations, Reporting on Rights

Type:

News, Press Releases

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

07.16.2014

At the United Nations Abortion Accountability Bodies News

U.N. Committee Questions Ireland on its Track Record of Denying Women Access to Safe Abortion Services

Justin Goldberg

Share this Story

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
U.N. Committee Questions Ireland on its Track Record of Denying Women Access to Safe Abortion Services

(PRESS RELEASE) Ireland’s minister of justice, Frances Fitzgerald and other representatives of the Irish government were questioned this week by a United Nations (U.N.) Committee on Ireland’s record of denying women access to essential reproductive health care, including access to and information on safe abortion services.



The U.N. Human Rights Committee reviewed Ireland as part of its oversight of states’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a treaty obligating member states to ensure equal enjoyment of all civil and political rights, including the rights to life and to be free from torture or other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.



Almost one year ago, Ireland’s President Michael Higgins signed the “Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act.” This act was designed to provide women and medical professionals clarity about abortion services, which are only legal when continuing a pregnancy poses a real and substantial threat to a woman’s life. Though the act is a critical step in implementing the existing abortion law in the country, women who want to terminate their pregnancies beyond this incredibly narrow circumstance are still denied access to safe abortion services in Ireland.



Said Lilian Sepúlveda, director of the Global Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights:



“While Ireland has taken steps to clarify the criteria for legal abortion, the current law denies too many women access to safe abortion.



“Forcing women to choose between carrying an unwanted pregnancy and traveling abroad to access abortion not only causes severe suffering and hardship, it violates women’s rights to dignity, autonomy, equality, life, and health.



“The United Nations Human Rights Committee must be firm and demand that Ireland expand access to safe and legal abortion services without further delay and ensure that women get the necessary information about legal abortion options in line with human rights standards.” 



The Center for Reproductive Rights submitted a report to the Committee about the severe physical and mental anguish women have suffered as a result of Ireland’s restrictive abortion law.



During the review, the Human Rights Committee recognized that Ireland’s very restrictive abortion law is inconsistent with its human rights obligations under the ICCPR. The committee specifically underscored that states must at a minimum make abortion legal and safe when the pregnancy poses a risk to the health of the woman, when the pregnancy results from rape or incest, and in cases of severe or fatal fetal anomalies.



The Committee was also critical of women being forced to travel abroad to access abortion services and the discriminatory impact this has on disadvantaged and vulnerable women. The government recognized that women without adequate financial resources are unable to travel and noted that at this time it does not have a solution to this situation. In closing remarks, the Committee’s chair said that the Committee hoped that a constitutional referendum to consider the liberalization of the abortion law would take place before the next review.



The U.N. Committee, which will issue its conclusions and recommendations later this month, has consistently questioned states about reproductive rights as part of its mandate to monitor states’ implementation of their human rights obligations. After its previous review of Ireland in 2008, the U.N. Committee expressed concern about Ireland’s highly restrictive abortion law and called on the government to bring the law in line with international human rights standards.



In the last year, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed two challenges to Ireland’s abortion law before the U.N. Human Rights Committee. The Center filed these cases on behalf of two women, Amanda Mellet and Siobhán Whelan, who were forced by Ireland’s harsh abortion policies to travel to the United Kingdom (U.K.) to obtain safe and legal abortion services after they were diagnosed with fatal fetal impairments. Both women received no help from medical staff to facilitate contact with U.K. hospitals nor were they given information about what a termination entails. Adding insult to injury, they were not offered appropriate bereavement counseling from their local hospitals.



Both Amanda and Siobhán are members of Terminations for Medical Reasons (TFMR Ireland), an advocacy group campaigning for Ireland to amend the abortion law to allow women to terminate pregnancies due to fatal fetal abnormalities. TFMR Ireland released the following statement:



“TFMR came to Geneva to highlight the ongoing trauma that couples are experiencing every week in Ireland when diagnosed with a fatal fetal abnormality. For those who wish to end the pregnancy they continue to be stigmatized and treated like criminals. They are often given little information and support. Having to travel for a termination under these circumstances makes an already horrific situation infinitely worse.



“The Human Rights Committee has made it very clear over the past two days that Ireland continuing not to allow terminations for these circumstances amounts to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. It is our hope that the UN Human Rights Committee will put pressure on the Irish government to change this outdated law.”


Related Posts

Decision: L.C. v. Peru

In a groundbreaking decision issued in L.C. v. Peru—a case brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights and its partner organization...

Abortion, Legal Restrictions,Latin America & Caribbean, Peru, Accountability Bodies, United Nations,In the Courts, Engaging Policymakers, Around the World, Reporting on Rights

Addressing Medical Professionals’ Refusals to Provide Abortion Care on Grounds of Conscience or Religion

In many European countries where abortion is legal, domestic laws and regulations allow medical professionals to refuse to provide abortion...

Abortion, Other Barriers,Europe, Accountability Bodies, European Human Rights System,Reporting on Rights
Addressing Medical Professionals’ Refusals to Provide Abortion Care on Grounds of Conscience or Religion

Concluding observations on the combined eighth and ninth periodic reports of El Salvador

Download the document here.  

Abortion,United States, Accountability Bodies, United Nations,At the United Nations

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2023)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up