History
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Life in Ireland |
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Culture
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At independence from the UK in 1922, the Offences against the Person Act 1861 remained in force, maintaining all abortions to be illegal and subject to punishment. One of Ireland's best-known abortionists, Mamie Cadden, was famously sentenced to death by hanging in 1957 - this was later commuted to life imprisonment - when one of her patients died. In 1983 the Constitution of Ireland was amended to add the Eighth Amendment, which asserted that the unborn had an explicit right to life from the time of conception.
Practical problems arose in interpretation of the amendment. In 1992, a controversy arose over the issue of whether a suicidal minor who was pregnant from statutory rape could leave Ireland for an abortion that is lawful in another country (Attorney General v. X, known as the 'X Case'). Another referendum was held in 1992, in which two amendments were passed that established the 'right to travel' and the 'right to information'. A third proposal, the proposed Twelfth Amendment, would have further restricted abortion laws in Ireland, but was defeated.
A further referendum was held in 2002 on the Twenty-fifth Amendment, which would have removed the threat of suicide as a grounds for legal abortion, but it too was defeated.
A number of controversies have arisen following deaths of pregnant women who were prevented from receiving medical care because of their pregnancy, such as Sheila Hodgers in 1983
In 2012, the death of Savita Halappanavar from septicemia and multiple organ failure led to protests demanding changes to Ireland's anti-abortion laws and a highly public investigation by the HSE, due to reports that she was denied treatment for a miscarriage because the fetus's heart was still beating.,
Read more about this topic: Abortion In The Republic Of Ireland
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