Abortion controversy - Decisive State action is needed

THERE is an urgent need for Government to introduce legislation in order to clarify the legal situation surrounding the vexed question of abortion in the Republic.

This need has been underlined by today’s revelation that the State paid for a teenage girl to travel abroad for the termination in 2005.

Few issues have divided Irish society more deeply than the abortion controversy. Crying out for decisive action from the legislature, it is a question that refuses to go away.