05.04.07
Miss D
This case took a bizarre twist today.
I had been watching it slightly confused to be honest. It just seemed so contrived. You had the teenager with her mother and the boyfriend’s mother giving consent and willing to pay for the abortion. You had the farcical examination of the girl in which she had to repeatedly insist that she was not suicidal. If ONLY she was suicidal everything would be so easy. Are you SURE you’re not suicidal? Nope, definitely not. A psychiatrist’s report confirming that not only was she not suicidal but had a very balanced approach to her situation was no help, much to the delight, one would think, of the pro-choice campaigners.
Don’t get me wrong. I am pro-choice and think the whole thing is an outrage but………it was starting to stink of a handy test case rather than a genuine situation. I kept thinking, sure hang on, all she has to do is get on the plane and go. Is anyone actually going to stop her? There’s no injunction. Sure unless they put a 24 hour tail on her how would the cops know she was gone to the airport?
Then, today it transpired that a HSE executive had written to the passport office saying they were not giving consent to her getting a passport. (I did think, well England is a free travel area, she doesn’t need a passport, but then she wouldn’t have other acceptable ID like a driving licence, so she probably would need a passport). So, that did show efforts were being made to stop her leaving the country.
Now later today it sounds like some kind of deal has been hammered out whereby the HSE will ask the district court to let her go and its all being painted as some kind of mix up about rights to travel when in the care of the HSE rather than a freedom to travel for an abortion issue.
Given that the HSE has in the past actually paid for people to have an abortion (maybe they made life easy for them and claimed to be suicidal, who knows) the whole thing is weird.
I’d say the particular girl’s social worker was a pro-lifer going out of their way to stop her, where other executives are happy to tick the suicidal box and write the cheque.
No doubt her social worker’s career is now doomed given the legal bills and mortification of the HSE over the whole thing.
Still, it show how utterly stupid our abortion exportation system is.
Ciarán said,
May 4, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I totally agree with you Sarah, though it did always seem that the easiest resolution of this particular case was going to be through the freedom to travel bit of the constitution. I doubt anyone really wanted to get involved in the substantive issues that created the problem when it was possible to sidestep them.
And I think that’s fair enough for ‘D’ as well: why should she be a totem for either side in the debate? Presumably, through a deal or not, all she wants is for her needs to be addressed as she sees fit.
Justin said,
May 4, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Apparently the HSE had also asked the guards to block her from travelling, too. It sounded to me like someone in a position of authority in the HSE wanted to stop her, repeatedly looking for ways to do so.
CG said,
May 4, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Well, I’d wonder how easy ‘ticking the suicidal box’ is, given how few cases (its in single figures isn’t it?) have actually gotten to go to England.
Here’s the Indo on her social worker:
‘It also emerged yesterday that a Garda superintendent wrote to a HSE social worker last week and told him the gardai had no power to stop the teenager travelling to the UK for an abortion.
In a letter dated April 26, the superintendent said the gardai are not permitted to detain a child in care without a warrant under the Child Care Act.
In his view, the superintendent said, a court order preventing the girl from travelling to the UK and absconding from care was required. They would not and could not stop the girl without a court order, he said.
In a follow-up letter to the superintendent, the social worker concerned outlined the facts of the D case and said she was adamant that she wished to travel to the UK for an abortion and “must be prevented from travelling”.’
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1824781&issue_id=15587
Well fair play to the gardai for knowing their constitution but what was this fella thinking? She’s in his care, not his prisoner.
As for test cases – that’s what’s so difficult, isn’t it? Because to be a successful test case, you have to be perfect. I mean you have to tick so many boxes, and women with the emotional and financial resources to take a legal challenge to court ALSO have the means to go over to England and who can blame them? So its only poor girls (literally girls) in care who have no choice but the courts…
CG said,
May 5, 2007 at 8:28 am
Oh – apparently Labour have said they want to change abortion law (they just haven’t elaborated on how, nor is it in their manifesto). Haven’t found a link confirming it yet. Maybe I will be voting after all.
CG said,
May 5, 2007 at 8:34 am
I tell a lie – manifesto has one line – they’ll legislate in accordance with the X case. Better than nothing. Would FG stand in their way?
tomcosgrave said,
May 5, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Thanks Sarah, I would like to see who in FG is pro-choice. My own views on abortion extend to full abortion-on-demand, but I know that no political party, even my own, will go that far.
So for the moment, I am interested in emergency legislation – all parties have should have a position on it.
CG – Labour policy is to legislate to cover the X case, and I would imagine that after this case, legislation will cover D as well. I believe Rabbitte said as much in the Indo during the week.
Emily said,
May 8, 2007 at 2:34 pm
That poor girl has had to come to terms, with her child never living, never growing to celebrate their first birthday, not having any future.
Our constitution claims the right to life of the unborn. I ask will this child ever be born if the mother is forced to go to full term ? It may be that technically a birth happens, but it will be the birth of a child that will not live. The child will probably not be resuscitated because of it’s condition. The child will never be able to breath on their own due to anencephaly.
Why make both mother and child suffer ? Even if the right to travel to the UK is granted what benefit does this have we are just exporting a problem. Our citizen’s deserver the right to choice.