Abortion legislation will ‘limit access to treatment’

European human rights authorities have been warned that the proposed abortion legislation will limit access to treatment and that requests for terminations should be decided within three days and not in a matter of weeks.

The body that oversees implementation of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights is expected this week to make a statement on the Government’s response to the ABC v Ireland case.

The Committee of Ministers in the Council of Europe is monitoring the coalition’s implementation of the ruling, which found that Ireland must make life-saving abortion services available.