Ireland looks to legalize abortion in ‘select cases’

AYESHA SIDDIQUI

KARACHI: Ireland has finally announced a pro-abortion mandate if a mother’s life is at risk, weeks after the death of a woman who was denied an abortion in the country.

Sources cited the woman was on the verge of a miscarriage when she repeatedly asked the authorities at a local hospital to perform an abortion. The staff refused stating the fetal heartbeat was present and according to the Catholic country’s laws would not be legal, which led to the death of the 31-year-old victim.

The Health Minister accepted the government was aware of the controversy surrounding the issue and trying to revoke the legislation that makes abortion a criminal act.

The new legislation will set out clear guidelines as to when doctors can perform the treatment whether when a woman’s life is at risk or involves any threats of suicide. The governments have resisted passing a law in support of abortion as any changes will stir up furious debate.

The government still faces a threat of not obtaining the right number of votes to legalize the practice, as more than a dozen lawmakers threaten to vote against it. The Archbishops stated the judgment would be terrible and un-called for.

Sources also state a spokesperson of an anti-abortion group as saying that pro-abortion laws would be exploited by pregnant women and kill unborn babies, and did not serve the purpose to save a woman’s life.

Thousands of women travel to neighboring England to carry out abortions, as Ireland fails to provide definitive laws on if and when they can be carried out.

Copyright business Recorder, 2012