ECHR presses Ireland to review abortion law

Published on 17 December 2010 at 12:26

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“Abortion becomes election issue after court ruling,” headlines the Irish Times, following the 16 December judgement by the European Court of Human Rights that the Irish state failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion. Under the Irish constitution, the unborn foetus has an equal right to life as the mother, with abortion a recourse only where the mother’s life is at risk. The Dublin daily notes that, according to the court, “the State violated the rights of a woman with cancer who was unable to establish whether she qualified for a lawful abortion here.” The highly emotive issue of abortion in Ireland’s predominantly Catholic society has “come back to haunt the political parties in the run-up to the 2011 general election campaign,” observes the Irish Times leader, castigating the “political cowardice” of successive governments reluctant to propose clear legislation on the matter.

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