Ireland’s health minister: abortion reforms ‘do not protect women enough’

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/17/abortion-reform-ireland-protect-women-leo-varadkar

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Ireland’s health minister admitted his government’s recent abortion reforms do not go far enough to protect women.

Leo Varadkar, who is also a medical doctor, said he would support extending access to terminations in Irish hospitals to women with conditions such as fatal foetal abnormalities but never abortion on demand.

Women who have been forced to seek abortions abroad, principally in England, have criticised their exclusion from the latest abortion legislation.

Varadkar’s intervention, which is highly significant given his seniority in cabinet and the Fine Gael party, came during a debate in the Dáil (Irish parliament) on a private members’ motion to further liberalise abortion laws and repeal Article 8 of the constitution giving equal rights to the mother and the unborn.

Terminations in Irish hospitals are limited only to women in cases where their lives are directly at risk if they go full term. The new law was also meant to include rape victims who are suicidal. However, earlier this year, a medical panel rejected pleas from a young asylum seeker to allow her to have an abortion in an Irish hospital. Known as Miss Y, her appeal was turned down even though she was the victim of rape back in her home country.

“Speaking as minister for health, and also as a medical doctor, and knowing now all that I do now, it is my considered view that the eighth amendment is too restrictive,” Varadkar told the Dáil.

“While it [the eighth amendment] protects the right to life of the mother, it has no regard for her long-term health. If a stroke, heart attack, epileptic seizure happens, perhaps resulting in permanent disability as a result, then that is acceptable under our laws. I don’t think that’s right.”

On cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, he said: “Similarly, it forces couples to bring to term a child that has no chance of survival for long outside the womb if at all. Forcing them, against their own judgment, to explain for weeks and months to all enquirers that their baby is dead.

“I have been present at stillbirths. I know it can be handled well and sensitively but I do not believe anything is served by requiring women or couples to continue with such pregnancies should they not wish to do so when there is no chance of the baby surviving.”