Unions urge immediate legislation for X case

The country’s largest trade union yesterday called for an end to foot-dragging on abortion legislation and urged the Government to bring in laws immediately to provide for terminations on the grounds recognised in the X case ruling.

Officials from Siptu, backed by Unite and the Women’s Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Union, handed in a letter at Leinster House calling on Taoiseach Enda Kennedy to stop delaying the matter.

“For over two decades Irish women have waited for their constitutional rights to be vindicated,” said Siptu campaigns and equality organiser Ethel Buckley.

“The failure of past governments and the tardiness of the current administration to legislate in this area is measured not only in years but also the suffering of the victims.”

Chairwoman of Ictu’s Women’s Committee, Máire Mulcahy, said the Government’s failure to legislate for the X case was no longer tolerable. “It is absolutely repugnant that the State exposes a woman’s life to danger by the absence of such legislation,” she said.

Unite’s regional equalities organiser, Taryn Trainor, said the current situation was discriminatory, as abortion was limited to those who could afford and were able to travel abroad.

“At present, thousands of women travel to Britain each year for an abortion,” she said. “But many more are unable to make that journey: Women on low incomes, women with disabilities, women who are too ill to travel.”