# Republic of Ireland stops woman travelling for an abortion **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 3, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634 "2007-05-03T16:48:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634/1 "2007-05-03T16:48:53Z")
AFAIK the Republic of Ireland prevents any of its citizens (well, as long as they’re pregnant women, obviously :rolleyes: ) from travelling outside the country to have an abortion. In [this case](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6618911.stm) it seems a little much. > [@](#): > > A 17-year-old pregnant Irish girl is appearing in the High Court in Dublin to press for the right to travel to Britain for an abortion. > > Doctors have told the girl that her four-month foetus will not live more than a few days beyond birth. I was following it on the news and wanted to mention it somewhere. Stopping someone from doing something the government has deemed illegal is one thing, but stopping them from travelling somewhere it is legal seems a bit much somehow. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634/2 "2007-05-03T16:50:39Z")
This happened a few years ago too - an incest case too. Can’t find a cite. It stinks. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634/3 "2007-05-03T19:32:15Z")
Here we go: [The ‘X’ Case](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Ireland) (a rather poorly written and incomplete Wiki article I’m afraid). In that case in 1992 it was deemed, after a lot of protest, that ‘X’, a 14-year-old who had been raped - _could_ leave the country as her life was in danger - from suicide. Thousands of adult women travel from Ireland to Britain every year for abortions. I _think_, though Irish dopers might want to correct me, the case here is that the girl in question is not an adult, as was ‘X’. ETA: [Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_v._X) a better article about the X Case, that shows that my supposition in the last paragraph above is in fact wrong. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634/4 "2007-05-04T03:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] AFAIK the Republic of Ireland prevents any of its citizens (well, as long as they’re pregnant women, obviously :rolleyes: ) from travelling outside the country to have an abortion. [/QUOTE] This is completely wrong. Far from the state preventing its citizens from travelling abroad to obtain an abortion, there is an explicit constitutional provision which says that the constitutional prohibition on abortion in Ireland is not to prevent someone from travelling abroad for an abortion and, as already pointed out, many people do precisely this, with no attempt to prevent them. [QUOTE=Pushkin] In [this case](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6618911.stm) it seems a little much. [/QUOTE] The important point in this case is not just that the person concerned is a minor (the applicant in the ‘X’ case, to which **Jimm** has linked was also a minor, and the court ruled in her favour) but that she is a minor _in the care of the state_. The issue is whether the relevant state agency, which has effective parental responsiblity for her, can approve of this. She cannot travel without their permission, but that is not because she is pregnant, or beause she is a woman, or because she is a girl. It is because she is in care. The question is not what the girl can do, but what the childcare authority can do. You may have strong views on whether a childcare authority should be required to prevent her from having an abortion - I do myself - but the header “Republic of Ireland stops woman from travelling for an abortion” is a bit misleading when the case has yet to be decided. The court may very well rule that the childcare authority can approve of this. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republic-of-ireland-stops-woman-travelling-for-an-abortion/402634/5 "2007-05-04T08:06:53Z")
[QUOTE=UDS] This is completely wrong. Far from the state preventing its citizens from travelling abroad to obtain an abortion, there is an explicit constitutional provision which says that the constitutional prohibition on abortion in Ireland is not to prevent someone from travelling abroad for an abortion and, as already pointed out, many people do precisely this, with no attempt to prevent them [/QUOTE] Indeed, my bad :o I browsed a bit more after posting and found that the [thirteenth amendment of the constitution of the Republic of Ireland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_of_the_Constitution_of_Ireland) prevented such a thing happening.