A pro-choice protester in Dublin, in September last year
You’ll recall the case of Ms Y, the suicidal teenage asylum seeker who discovered she was pregnant, after she was raped, and went on hunger strike in pursuit of an abortion.
Yesterday, Mark Tighe, in the Sunday Times, reported:
A baby boy was delivered prematurely at 26 weeks when doctors signed off on the procedure under the new abortion law after Ms Y was deemed suicidal. She had described the unborn baby as a “devil” and said she would rather die than bring it to term. The boy has since been taken into care by the state.
Letters claiming damages for personal injury have been sent to the health-screening centre at the asylum centre where she first lived, a psychiatric hospital, the maternity hospital where the baby was born, and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), which was involved in counselling Ms Y after she discovered she was pregnant, is also being sued. An Garda Siochana, which is alleged to be involved in Ms Y’s forced repatriation to Ireland when she travelled to Liverpool to seek an abortion, has also been issued with a claim.
The Department of Justice and the Reception and Integration Agency, which have responsibility for managing asylum seekers, are also on notice of the claims against them.
Ms Y issues nine abortion lawsuits (Mark Tighe, Sunday Times)
Previously: ‘It Is Right To Be Angry In The Face Of Injustice’
Pic: Paula Geraghty