Irish Police Cannot Stop Girl Leaving for Abortion

Ireland's police force has warned the country's health service that it has no powers to prevent a 17-year-old girl obtaining an abortion abroad, the high court in Dublin heard yesterday.

The revelation came during a high-profile case that has exposed the confusion in the Republic's abortion laws and shown government agencies at odds with one another over the legal complications.

The girl, known only as "Miss D", is in the care of the health service executive (HSE). She is four months pregnant but prenatal screening has confirmed that the foetus suffers from anencephaly, which causes a malformed head and brain.

Doctors say the baby will live for only days outside the womb. However, the HSE has argued that Ireland's abortion laws do not permit a termination on the grounds of foetal abnormality. Miss D, who is supported by her boyfriend, is seeking permission to travel abroad for an abortion.

On April 26, the high court heard, the HSE asked the police to stop the girl leaving Ireland. A senior officer told the executive that the police would not and could not stop the girl without a court order.

Eoghan Fitzsimons, representing Miss D, said it would be inhumane to force a teenager to carry her baby for nine months knowing it would die. He said she would suffer mental and physical trauma and great discomfort, and rejected claims by a social worker that she had changed her mind about the abortion.

If Miss D had not been in the care of the HSE and her parents had supported her decision for a termination, Mr Fitzsimons added, there would have been nothing to stop her travelling.

The court also heard that the girl said her social worker had told her that a high court order had been granted to stop her travelling, though no such order existed.

Miss D's lawyers say that other women go abroad for abortions in such cases. About 7,000 Irish women a year go to Britain for abortions.

The case continues.