UN deems Ireland's abortion laws cruel and inhuman

The United Nations deem that the Irish government's abortion laws are cruel and inhuman after an Irish woman, who couldn't get abortion in her own country, was forced to travel "while carrying a dying fetus at her own expense" in 2011. 

"Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if [she] had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted," read a statement from the ruling of a panel of UN human rights committee experts.

According to The Guardian, Amanda Mellet was prevented from undergoing an abortion even after doctors declared that the fetus she was carrying had congenital defects and would either die in the womb or after birth. Mellet was forced to travel to the United Kingdom and then return 12 hours after the procedure because she could not afford spending any more — the round trip travel already cost her €3,000.

The UN's human rights committee called on the Irish government to reform its abortion laws and to prevent similar incidences from happening in the future. One of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, the international body also judged that it was cruel, inhuman, and degrading. They mandated the government to compensate Mellet for her expenses.

Leah Hoctor, the regional director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights and also the same person who submitted the complaint to the UN, considers UN's ruling as significant as it provides encouragement to lawyers working on abortion cases in countries with restrictive abortion laws.

Mellet also released a statement after the ruling wherein she expressed her hope that Irish women "will be able to access the health services they need in our own country, where we can be with our loved ones, with our own medical team, and where we have our own familiar bed to go home and cry in."

Simon Harris, the country's health minister, called the committee's report a "landmark ruling" and then echoed the same sentiments of the international body as to amending the laws and preventing similar violations in the future.