Irish minister describes abortion law as 'great cruelty'

July 25, 2013 09:16

Ireland's justice minister has described the country's existing abortion laws as a "great cruelty" which requires women to bear children conceived out of rape or having congenital genetic defects.

Alan Shatter predicted that legislators, fresh from months of debate over the 'Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill,' would be forced to face the question again as the Irish public wants wider access to abortion for the most difficult cases.

"I personally believe it is a great cruelty that our law creates a barrier to a woman in circumstances where she has a fatal foetal abnormality being able to have a pregnancy terminated, and that according to Irish law any woman in those circumstances is required to carry a child to full term knowing it has no real prospect of any nature of survival following birth," he said in Dublin on Wednesday, a day after the Pregnancy Bill was passed by the Seanad.

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