Women who had UK abortions to bring case against Ireland to the United Nations

In a new attempt to broaden the basis on which terminations of pregnancy may be obtained in Ireland the Journal reports that a group of Irish women who each decided to abort their babies following a diagnosis of fetal abnormality are taking a case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee with the assistance of an international pro-abortion law firm the Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR).

It is understood that the lodgement of petitions to have their case considered by the committee will take place next week.

There is no such right as a so called 'right' to abortion in any International UN Treaty, quite the reverse in fact, the right to life of all members of the human family is protected in the Universal declaration of human rights and its associated covenants.

There has however been much criticism of treaty monitoring committees, such as the committee in question, that they bring the United Nations into disrepute by reinterpreting the texts to find so-called non existent rights.

It must be stated, whist one has every sympathy with a woman who finds herself in this appalling predicament abortion is not the answer. Despite the pressure placed on women in this difficult situation to abort their babies and the tendency to describe the unfortunate children as monsters, abortion is not the way forward, there is a better way, a caring way of dealing with the devastating news that an unborn baby has not developed fully and is suffering from a terminal condition.

It is essential for women in this awful predicament to have support such as that which can be provided by perinatal hospice care.

The perinatal hospice approach is one that walks with families on their journey through pregnancy, birth, and death, honoring the baby as well as the baby's family. Perinatal hospice is not a place; it is more a frame of mind. It is a way of caring for the pregnant mother, the baby, the father, and all involved with dignity and love. Even in areas without a formal program, parents can create a loving experience for themselves and their baby, and health professionals and family and friends can offer support in the spirit of hospice care.

Many Irish women have taken the decision to cherish every day of the life their baby without ever having heard of the perinatal hospice concept as is presented in this BLOGPOST and video

The following is the text of the Journal report

THE GROUP REPRESENTING women who travelled to the UK to terminate unviable pregnancies are to bring their case to the United Nations.

Terminations for Medical Reasons (TFMR) and the Centre for Reproductive Rights will file three petitions alleging human rights violations with the UN Human Rights Committee next week

The mothers have campaigned since last April – when some of them appeared on the Late Late Show - to change the current situation in Ireland which sees women travel to other jurisdictions for terminations if their babies are suffering with fatal foetal abnormalities.

Various pleas and protests directed at government members failed to garner the necessary support to be included in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 because of fears that the provision would be unconstitutional.

Another demonstration will be held outside Leinster House on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a press conference to discuss the petitions being filed.

Members of TFMR were devastated of the omission from the legislation this year but vowed to take their cases to Europe and beyond.

The women have shared the trauma of having to travel to Liverpool and other English cities to undergo terminations to journalists and politicians in the past eight months.

“We are looking for nothing extreme here. Just decency, dignity and compassion,” Deirdre Conroy, the woman at the centre of the ‘D’ case which was heard at the European Court of Human Rights, said earlier this year.