UN Urges Ireland To Amend Abortion Law
In Ireland, abortion has not been allowed unless the life of the mother is in danger. The UN has urged Ireland to amend their abortion law, after serious concerns that the existing law subjected a woman to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and violated her human rights.
A panel of UN human rights experts found that the abortion law of Ireland subjected a woman, Amanda Mellet, to go through emotional pain. She was told by doctors that her foetus had congenital defects and that meant it would die in the womb or shortly after birth. So, she had to travel elsewhere for an abortion, at her own expense.
Ireland is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and thus obliged to compensate Mellet. The UN has now pushed Ireland to reform their abortion law, in order to bring it in line with human rights law.
