Labour Women, Labour Youth and Labour Intercultural renew calls to repeal the 8th amendment and review consent in maternity services as pregnant woman who may have been raped was forced to undergo court ordered medical intervention

Commenting Labour Youth Chair Ciaran Garrett said ‘This young woman, who it seems was in an incredibly vulnerable state appears to have been forced by our courts and by the HSE to undergo numerous invasive medical procedures against her will. At no point did her rights to dignity, bodily integrity or the right to refuse consent to medical treatment appear to have been respected’.

Also commenting chair of Labour Intercultural Karen Mc Cormack said ‘Disturbingly, had this young woman the means and freedom to travel abroad to terminate her pregnancy at an early stage, it is unlikely she would have sought to access a termination under the new legislation and would not have been subjected to this treatment’.

Further commenting Labour Women Chair Sinead Ahern said ‘We hope that this young woman can find some peace after the terrible trauma which has been inflicted upon her and wish her well. The issue remains however that the right to refuse consent for medical procedures is essentially absent during pregnancy. While the current case is a particularly distressing example of this phenomenon, there have been many other high profile cases in which the courts have been involved to force unwanted medical intervention in pregnancy. We can only draw one conclusion from these cases, in our maternity services, those carrying the pregnancies are essentially treated as vessels devoid of independent human rights. The only way these human rights violations can be stopped is by repealing the 8th amendment. Labour Women and Labour Youth are therefor calling in the government to immediately table a referendum to remove the 8th amendment from the constitution.

ENDS