Ireland's abortion laws are back in the spotlight after the United Nations Human Rights Committee says a woman was subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Experts examined a case where a woman carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality was forced to choose between carrying it to full-term or travelling abroad for an abortion.
In 2011 Amanda Mellet was denied an abortion after learning that the foetus she was carrying had a fatal foetal abnormality.
She travelled to the UK for an abortion but could not afford to stay any longer than 12 hours, being forced to leave her foetus's remains behind.
Its ashes were unexpectedly delivered to her, by courier, three weeks later.
The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Ireland's failure to provide bereavement counselling and medical care - which she would have been entitled to in Ireland, had she miscarried - was a discrimination against her.
It found Ireland's abortion laws violated Ms Mellet’s right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if (she) had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted,” the Committee wrote in its findings.
The Committee says Ireland is obliged to prevent similar violations from occurring and the State should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary changing the constitution.
The state now has 180 days to reply.
The finding was raised in the Dáil this morning shortly after its publication, as our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports:
