Calls for new abortion laws to be axed

The country’s abortion laws are once again under the spotlight, with all sides in the debate calling for legislation passed less than a year ago to be scrapped.

It follows revelations that a suicidal immigrant teenager made pregnant through rape and unable to travel abroad was denied an abortion, and that her 24-week-old foetus was delivered by caesarean section despite her protests, and only after she refused food and water.

The teenager’s case brings together all the extreme circumstances that critics of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 warned could happen in Oireachtas Committee and Dáil debates last year.