Abortion-case woman attempted suicide during pregnancy

It has emerged that the young woman who was refused an abortion and later had her baby delivered by Caesarean section, attempted to take her own life when she was 16 weeks' pregnant.

In an interview with the Irish Times, the woman says she was a victim of rape before she came to Ireland earlier this year and she found out she was pregnant during a medical check soon after.

She says she immediately expressed her desire to die rather than bear her rapist's child, when she was eight weeks and four days' pregnant.

After being admitted to hospital at 24 weeks pregnant, an expert panel agreed that she was suicidal and that a termination should be carried out.

However, it was then decided that the pregnancy was too far gone and that her baby would be delivered early by c-section.

Irish Times journalist Kitty Holland, who spoke to the woman, says it is still not clear why her request for a termination was not heard until so late into her pregnancy.

"She, for whatever reason, didn't get heard between eight and 16 weeks," she said.

"When she was seeing a counsellor, and for some reason, was not seen by a psychiatrist, and that seems to be where she fell between the cracks, for reasons of language difficulty possibly."