IFPA Submission to CEDAW

May 2005

Submission to the Commission on Elimination Against Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The Irish Family Planning Association ("IFPA") submits these remarks to emphasise the Irish government's continued failure to comply with Article 12 of the Convention through the State's failure to provide greater access to abortion information and services in Ireland.

Article 12 states that:
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure, on a basis of equality with men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning.

In its Concluding Observations on Ireland’s 2nd and 3rd periodic reports, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women expressed concern about the fact that abortion remains illegal in Ireland with very limited exceptions, and that women who wish to terminate their pregnancies have to travel abroad to do so. In particular, the Committee stated that this can create hardship for vulnerable groups, such as female asylum seekers who cannot leave the territory of the State. Since the Committee examined Ireland’s reports in 1999, the legal situation in relation to abortion in Ireland has worsened, in particular as a result of the increasing availability of unsafe illegal abortion services within Ireland.

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