ABORTIONS IN IRELAND: RECONCILING A HISTORY OF RESTRICTIVE ABORTION PRACTICES WITH THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS’ RULING IN A., B. & C. v. IRELAND
Morgan Rhinehart
ABSTRACT
For most women seeking to end a pregnancy in Ireland, abortion in the country is illegal and difficult to obtain. The law, at least in theory, allows women the right to an abortion only when there is a serious risk to the mother’s life. Because Ireland has some of the strictest laws in the world regarding abortion, thousands of Irish women are forced to travel to other countries to end their pregnancies.
Throughout Ireland’s history, pro-life advocates have experienced little to no influential opposition from their pro-choice counterparts. However, in 2005, three women sued Ireland in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after they could not obtain abortions in Ireland and subsequently traveled abroad for this purpose. In A., B. & C. v. Ireland, the ECHR found that Ireland violated Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention because the country failed to establish a set of effective and accessible procedures for women and their doctors to determine if the women qualified for a legal abortion.
This Comment will focus on the history of Irish abortion law and the potential effect of the A., B. & C. v. Ireland ruling. The Comment will then analyze the changes that Ireland has made since the ECHR ruling and will evaluate whether the Irish government is committed to bringing the country’s laws in line with the ECHR requirements. Finally, this Comment will conclude that, based on Ireland’s history regarding abortion and its actions since the ECHR ruling, the Irish Government will likely take an “action-on-paper” approach that implements the ECHR ruling in theory but not in practice.
preferred citation: Morgan Rhinehart, Abortions in Ireland: Reconciling a History of Restrictive Abortion Practices with the European Court of Human Rights’ Ruling in A., B. & C. v. Ireland, 117 Penn St. L. Rev. 959 (2013).