'Cruelty, punishment, stigma': Deidre Conroy's experience of laws governing fatal foetal abnormality
A woman who travelled to have a termination for medical reasons following a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality has said laws governing the issue here are unsympathetic.
Deirdre Conroy took her case to the European Court of Human Rights after she travelled for a termination while she was pregnant with twins in 2002.
The Sunday Business Post is reporting the Attorney General has told the Cabinet that allowing an abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities is "in conflict with the Constitution".
Many TDs voted against legislation on the issue proposed by Clare Daly this week.
Deirdre Conroy has said she felt travelling for a termination after receiving a fatal foetal diagnosis was her only option, and said women in that situation should have the choice to have a termination in Ireland.
In Jan 2002, she was 39, the mother of two boys aged 10 and 12, and expecting twins.
But, at 14 weeks’ pregnant, the initial results of an amniocentesis test revealed one of the twins had died. Three weeks later, full test results revealed the second twin had Edward’s Syndrome, a condition which usually ends in miscarriage or death shortly after birth because of heart abnormalities, kidney malformations, and other internal organ disorders.
"You don't want to be living every day knowing this baby isn't going to live, it could miscarry any day - but then it mightn't," she said.
"You have to take some control so that you can look after yourself and your family.
"Your mental health is so fragile at a time like that. You're wondering why has this happened. In my case (diagnosis came at) four months. That's a long time - you've told everybody (at 12 weeks, and) gone through a month of that joy and then it's this whopping bad news.
"What I felt was punishment, no sympathy, cruelty and stigma - everything negative."
Deirdre decided to go to Belfast for a termination, where she was given medication to induce the birth. Under their abortion laws, there is provision for abortion when a foetus has Edward’s Syndrome.
A ‘very real tragedy’ behind a human rights case
