D. v. Ireland

The European Court of Human Rights found inadmissible a complaint regarding the unavailability of abortion services for fatal fetal abnormality in Ireland and a question of the compatibility of the constitutional restriction on the availability of abortion in Ireland with Article 8 of the ECHR because the applicant had failed to exhaust domestic remedies. The Court found that the applicant had not availed herself of a legal constitutional remedy which was, in principle, available: declaratory and mandatory orders to obtain a legal abortion. Despite “some uncertainty” with regard to the chances of success, the timing of the proceedings and the guarantees of the confidentiality of the applicant’s identity, the Court found that the applicant could reasonably have been expected to take certain preliminary steps, notably, to take legal advice and seek an urgent in camera hearing before the High Court. In 2018, Ireland enacted the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, which allows abortion (i) during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, (ii) when the fetus has a condition that is likely fatal, or (iii) to protect the life or health of the woman.

Year 

2006

Avon Center work product