Ms Christina Zampas:

I thank the members for inviting us today. Across the many testimonies in this report from women, health care providers and civil society organisations about the impact of Ireland's restrictive abortion regime, there are significant recurrent themes that bear emphasising. First, regardless of the law, women in Ireland have and will continue to have abortions. The World Health Organization estimates confirm that restrictive abortion laws do not reduce the number of induced abortions as women will undergo abortions regardless of its legal status and lawful availability. Ireland is no exception. The eighth amendment and the 2013 abortion law have not stopped women from having abortions. Every year, approximately 4,000 women travel to get abortions outside of Ireland. Restricting access to safe and legal abortion in Ireland instead invariably leads to rights violations and disproportionately impacts those who are already marginalised or vulnerable, compounding the human rights violations they experience.

The story of Ms "Y" is a tragic example of how the legal regime in Ireland is harming women. She was raped in her home country and as an asylum seeker, she sought a safe haven in Ireland or so she thought. When she attempted to get an abortion here, she was unable to do so because of the ban on abortion even in cases of rape. She tried to go to England but was turned back at the border because of her migrant status. In protest at her inability to get an abortion, she stopped eating and drinking. She was suicidal. She was then entitled to an abortion on the only ground available under the law in Ireland, the life exception, but even so, she still could not get an abortion. She was coerced into continuing the pregnancy despite her desperate pleas. She underwent a caesarean section and her lawyer told us that the caesarean section scar is, and will continue to be, a constant reminder of the rape she endured in her country and the brutal treatment she received in Ireland. Under human rights, such treatments can constitute torture.

The second theme that arose was that without exception, every woman Amnesty International spoke with, whether she travelled abroad for an abortion or remained in Ireland, experienced a violation of her right to physical and-or mental health. In speaking of their choices to travel or to procure an illegal abortion in Ireland, almost every woman we spoke to made repeated reference to the death of Savita and the impact it had on them, some fearing for their lives should they need to undergo a lawful abortion in Ireland. It is critical to note that the situation faced by Savita is not an isolated incident. Any woman who is in the process of having a miscarriage could easily be her. In fact, we spoke with several such women and I can speak to specific cases in our discussions following this presentation.

The third theme that arose was that women consistently emphasised that having to travel abroad for an abortion made them feel like a criminal, regardless of the reason they were having abortions. They all discussed the increased stigma and isolation this made them feel for making decisions that women in almost every other European country, with the exception of Malta, can make. Women told us of their need to lie to their family, friends and employers; to arrange for child care; and to beg for money from friends in order to afford travel; and the fear they had of returning to Ireland with complications and needing health care but instead being labelled as a criminal. As one doctor I spoke with said: "Our Constitution is profoundly hypocritical and that it protects women to go abroad for something that is outlawed here."

The final theme that arose concerns the Regulation of Information (Services outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act 1995. Most health care providers and counsellors we interviewed expressed frustration at this Act which essentially censors the provision of information on abortion and compromises the relationship between health care provider and patient.

The law’s ban on advocating and promoting abortion has created a climate where women are denied full information on the abortion procedure in Ireland, and doctors could be held criminally liable for referring women to abortion providers. This denies women their right to information and goes against all good practice, including that recommended by the World Health Organization.

One woman’s statement embodies the sentiments of many interviewed for this report. A woman identified in our report as Roisin told us:

I’m hoping [access to safe and legal abortion in Ireland] will happen in my lifetime. So my daughter, when she is older and she needs to have an abortion, doesn’t need to travel to the UK in secret, in [secret and in] silence.

Amnesty International’s calls are simple. We know they will take courage on the part of legislators to see through. However, as our report clearly shows, women's and girls’ health and lives are at stake and Ireland’s human rights record is tarred. This Legislature has a responsibility to ensure that the Republic’s laws are in line with its international human rights obligations. In order to achieve this, it is essential that the Constitution’s eighth amendment be repealed; that abortion be decriminalised; that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act be repealed and replaced with a legislative framework that ensures access to abortion both in law and in practice, at a minimum, in cases where the pregnancy poses a risk to the life or to the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman or girl, in cases of severe and fatal foetal impairment, and in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. These are the requirements of Ireland's human rights obligations. We are also calling for the repeal of the regulation of information legislation.