With the Catholic influence
there, Ireland has an absolute ban on abortion — a ban championed by
American politicians associated with the far right. In Ireland, a woman cannot have an abortion if she's been raped. She can't have an abortion if the man who made her pregnant is abusing her. She can't have an abortion if the baby will die once it's outside of her body. She can't even have an abortion if the pregnancy puts her health at risk.
In a September 2012 poll conducted by Ireland's The Sunday Times, when asked "whether they would or would not support a change in law to allow abortion where the life of a mother was at risk, 80% said they would, 14% said they would not, and 6% were undecided."
Irish law governing abortion exceptions due to the health of the mother is not clear. This issue was the subject of a recent ruling concerning human rights in Europe.
In 2005, three Irish women who had previously traveled to England for abortion brought suit in the European Court of Human Rights asserting that restrictive and unclear Irish laws violated several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case, A. B. and C. v. Ireland, was heard before the Grand Chamber of the Court December 2009 and was decided on December 16, 2010.
The Court held there is no right for women to an abortion, although it found that Ireland had violated the Convention by failing to provide an accessible and effective procedure by which a woman can have established whether she qualifies for a legal abortion under current Irish law.
The Court's decision is binding on Ireland and all of the member states of the Council of Europe. A government appointed 'Expert Group' is due to adjudicate on Ireland's legal situation in late 2012.
The Huffington Post explains the case:
The lawsuit dates back to 2005, when the Irish Family Planning Association sued Ireland's government on behalf of three women who traveled overseas that year for abortions: an Irish woman who had four previous children placed in state care, an Irish woman who didn't want to become a single mother, and a Lithuanian woman living in Ireland who was in remission from a rare form of cancer.
The judges said the first two women had failed to demonstrate that their pregnancies represented a sufficient risk to their health, but the Lithuanian woman faced a life-threatening situation. It ordered Ireland to pay her euro15,000 ($20,000) in damages.
The judges lambasted Ireland's defense claiming that the woman should have petitioned the Irish High Court for the right to have an abortion in Ireland. They said Irish doctors must be given clear legal guidance on the eligibility rules for abortions.Women who find themselves with unwanted pregnancies often travel alone to England for abortions.
According to Al Jazeera, they make the journey alone, terrified to tell anyone what they are doing.
One small organization exists in England to help Irish women who want to get an abortion but who cannot afford it. Over the last three years, requests to the Abortion Support Network have tripled, mirroring Ireland's financial crisis.
Mara Clarke of the Abortion Support Network told Al Jazeera that women who find that they are pregnant with a baby they cannot afford have no recourse for help in their own country.
"We hear unemployed, we hear recession, we hear redundant, we hear desperate," she said.
Back in 2008, The Guardian's Fionola Meredith wrote about the dilemma faced by Irish women faced with unwanted pregnancies:
Thousands of women make this costly, agonisingly difficult journey [toEngland] every year – many in the later stages of pregnancy because of delays caused by financial hardship. Others, perhaps unable to afford the trip, are turning to risky abortion pills bought on the internet. And a recent survey (pdf) of GPs in Northern Ireland found that 11% "have seen the results of amateur abortions". Yet our politicians continue to complacently inform us that there is no demand for abortion in Northern Ireland.Gillian Ni Cheallaigh lives in England, where she can speak freely about the need for reproductive choice in Ireland. When she was 17 and living in Ireland, she had an abortion.
She would not be able to speak publicly about it had she not left the country.
"The greatest lie in Irish society is that men think they don't know any woman who's had an abortion," she told Al Jazeera.
"Every Irish man knows, whether it's their wife, their daughter, their sister — one of, or more than one of, the women they know has had an abortion."
Because of the increasing financial hardships Irish women are facing due to the bleak economy, it is becoming more difficult for them to travel out of the country for help.
The Catholic Church's hold over the stakes on the moral absolutism of anti-abortion campaigners means there is little chance of change.
When even rape victims are denied pregnancy termination, financial hardship arguments do not stand a chance for sympathy.
Pro-life campaigners claim that there should be more support in the form of fostering or adoption for women who cannot afford children.