Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 27, 1992 TAG: 9202270007
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
IRISH TEEN WINS CONSENT TO SEEK ABORTION ABROAD
Ireland's Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for a 14-year-old rape victim to fly to England for an abortion.It overturned a lower court ruling that the girl could not travel abroad because she would be violating the "right-to-life" amendment in the Irish constitution.
Irish women's groups and other abortion supporters reacted jubilantly to the news and said they would use the case as a springboard for a campaign to repeal Ireland's tough anti-abortion law.
Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, arriving in London for talks with British leaders, also welcomed the court's action. "The girl is free to go. The injunction is lifted," Reynolds said.
But he said he wanted to see the court's full decision, warning "it may have other implications" for the Irish Constitution.
The Supreme Court gave no immediate reasons for its decision. "The court is satisfied that this appeal should be allowed and . . . decision should be set aside," Chief Justice Thomas Findlay said. The court said it would publish its full opinion later.
The girl's parents had appealed the Feb. 17 injunction against her traveling abroad to the Supreme Court, Ireland's highest constitutional body. The court issued its decision on the third day of the case.
The girl, whose identity has been kept from the public, claims she was raped in December by a family friend who had been sexually abusing her for more than a year. Friends said she had become suicidal after the court ban.
The case reignited a bitter debate over the abortion issue that raged nine years ago, when voters by a 2-to-1 margin approved a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion except when the mother's life is in danger. It is the most restrictive abortion law in Europe.
The travel ban was believed to have been the first attempt to prevent an Irish woman from going abroad to have an abortion. More than 4,000 Irish women come to England for abortions each year.
While the Supreme Court's decision eased the immediate crisis, a potential constitutional crisis continued to hang over Ireland that may not be settled until after the text of the ruling is published.
Legal experts said the legality of the anti-abortion amendment could be called into question if the court ruled that the travel injunction against the girl was in violation of European Community law. EC law provides for the free travel of all European citizens within the 12-nation community.
But if the Supreme Court lifted the injunction on grounds that the lower court had misinterpreted the law, or that the girl's health was in danger, the immediate constitutional crisis would be over, they said.
Whatever the constitutional implications, the highly publicized case has returned the sensitive abortion issue to the forefront of the political agenda in Ireland. A large number of female representatives to the Irish Parliament and Senate have started saying publicly the law should be changed.