A bill to permit abortions on the grounds of mental health has been approved by the Irish Parliament in a vote of 127 to 31.
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 will allow terminations to “eliminate the risk of self-destruction,” where the mother is threatening to commit suicide.
Expelled
Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton was automatically expelled from the party for voting against the suicide clause, and was shortly replaced by Dublin TD Paschal Donohoe.
Mrs Creighton has also announced her intention to immediately resign from her current position as Minister for European Affairs.
She said: “….I am relieved because this is a huge issue that has been weighing on everybody’s mind for months.
Struggled
“It’s no exaggeration to say that a lot of people have really struggled on which way they would vote in this legislation and now obviously five members of the Dáil from my parliamentary party [will not support it].”
Last week, four Fine Gael members - Peter Mathews, Terence Flanagan, Billy Timmins and Brian Walsh - were also excluded from the parliamentary party for voting against the legislation.
Leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny, refused to offer his party a free vote on the issue.
Savita
The legislation comes following the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year-old woman who died in Galway hospital after suffering from blood poisoning thought to have been caused by a miscarriage.
The reporting of the case caused public outcry, with the pro-abortion lobby using the incident to demand that Ireland’s abortion laws be reviewed.
Shortly after, the Cabinet announced the Government’s intention to change Ireland’s abortion laws to permit abortions where there is a risk of suicide to the mother.
Criticism
But health experts in maternal care, including leading obstetricians and psychiatrists, have rejected claims that abortion is a “solution” for suicidal inclinations.
The head of St. Patrick's University Hospital, Ireland's leading psychiatric hospital, said that there is “no evidence either in literature or from the work of St. Patrick's University Hospital that indicates that termination of pregnancy is an effective treatment for any mental health disorder or difficulty.”
No evidence
Last month, Professor David Fergusson of the University of Otago in New Zealand published a research paper also concluding that there was no evidence that abortion reduces mental health consequences for women.
Critics have also pointed out that Ireland’s abortion laws already permit terminations where there is a physical risk to the mother’s life, and that allowing abortions on mental health grounds will lead to the availability of the procedure “on demand”.
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