Ms Leah Hoctor:

The centre for reproductive rights represented Amanda Mellet and Siobhan Whelan in their cases to the human rights committee. They were two women who had obtained diagnoses of fatal foetal impairment and were told by doctors and nurses here that they could not legally end their pregnancies here because of Irish law on abortion, so they travelled to the UK where they were able to access medical terminations. These women were of the view that they had suffered grievously in different ways and they wanted to work to ensure that other women would not suffer in the same way. Accordingly, they wanted to take their complaints to the human rights committee and they claimed violations of their human rights, which the committee found.