PILA Bulletin: 28 November 2012
The expert group on abortion’s report on how Ireland should react to the ECHR ruling in A, B and C was published yesterday, 27 November 2012.
The report explicitly acknowledges that Ireland is obliged to implement the binding judgment of the ECtHR in the A, B and C case. Bulletin readers may recall that this was the case where the Strasbourg court held that Ireland had failed to properly implement the constitutional right to abortion where a woman's life is at risk. The 2010 decision confirmed the ruling in the 1992 Irish Supreme Court X case, where it was found that the Constitution permitted abortion in circumstances where there was a "real and substantial risk" to the life of the mother, including the possibility of suicide.
The expert group, appointed in January this year, set out options on how to implement the A B and C judgment and outlined the advantages and disadvantages associated with each option. Click here to read. The four options are as follows; 1) non-statutory guidelines 2) statutory regulations 3) legislation only and 4) legislation plus regulations. The group identified option no 4 (legislation and regulations) as “constitutionally, legally and procedurally sound” but made no recommendation.
RTE News reported Minister Shatter as saying that the Government will make a decision in the next three weeks on how to proceed with giving legal clarity to the issue of abortion where the mother's life is at risk. Mr Shatter also said it is "not an option" to leave out the threat of suicide as grounds for an abortion.
Ireland Human Rights Watchdog, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) welcomed the publication as a “lucid and authoritative” report which provides a “baseline” for abortion law reform.
Click here to read the report:
Click here to read an ICCL press release:
Click here to read an RTE news article: and an article from the journal.ie