An Irish man has pleaded guilty to forcing a woman to take abortion pills, ending the life of her unborn child, in what is believed to be one of the first cases of its kind in Ireland.
The man forced the woman to take abortion pills, which reports say he had obtained from a pharmacy in Dublin, on Valentine’s Day 2020, ending the life of her nine-week-old unborn child.
It took the police in Ireland four years to access the accused’s phone because of a programme he had installed on it. Once accessed, it showed that the man had searched online for how to conduct an abortion at home using abortion pills.
The phone also contained an audio recording of the man forcing the woman to take the abortion pills, in which he can be heard saying, “I’m showing you what to do… take this… I’m dead serious… I’m forcing you. I don’t care, take it”.
Following the consumption of the abortion pills, the woman was in a large amount of pain and suffering from cramps. The man had locked her in a room during this time and told her not to eat anything.
The man is also charged with assaulting the woman and causing her harm, which he has also pleaded guilty to.
Forced abortion robbed woman of “a future that I had already begun to plan and love”
During her victim impact statement, the woman made it clear that she has suffered a long-term impact following this forced abortion.
“When he wrongfully imprisoned me and caused the termination of my nine-week pregnancy, he took far more than my freedom”, she said. “He took my child. He took my sense of safety. He took a future that I had already begun to plan and love”.
“My baby was real to me. I had hopes, dreams, and a bond with the life that was growing inside me, and all of it was violently stolen from me in a moment of cruelty that I will never forget”, she added.
“I will always grieve my child. I will always remember what was taken from me”, the woman said, adding, “What happened mattered. My child mattered. And justice matters”.
At-home abortion makes it easier for forced abortions to happen
In England and Wales, telemedicine home abortions, where abortion pills can be procured without an in-person appointment with a medical professional, were originally introduced in March 2020 as a temporary measure during the pandemic. In February 2022, the Government announced the scheme would end after running a consultation in which 70% of respondents called for an immediate end to at-home abortion schemes. However, at-home abortions were made permanently available via a backbench amendment moved in the House of Lords to the Health and Care Act in March 2022 that narrowly passed by just 27 votes in the Commons.
A push to remove any legal deterrent for late-term abortions for women in relation to their own pregnancies is currently underway through a clause tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill.
The clause – clause 191 – was introduced by Tonia Antoniazzi MP in the Commons after just 46 minutes of backbench debate – there was no prior consultation with the public, no Committee Stage scrutiny and no evidence sessions.
The clause would change the law so it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth, likely leading to a significant increase in the number of women performing dangerous late-term abortions at home.
The introduction of the clause to the Crime and Policing Bill caused a major backlash, which included 91% of 28,000 respondents to a poll run by The Telegraph saying they were opposed to the extreme law change that would be introduced by clause 191.
At the Lords Committee Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill earlier this month, Peers lined up to back a major bid to overturn the abortion up to birth clause in the Bill, and reinstate in-person consultations with a medical professional prior to an abortion taking place at home.
Two high-profile members of the House of Lords, Baroness Monckton and Baroness Stroud, have tabled Committee Stage amendments, along with other Peers, to overturn the highly controversial abortion up to birth amendment, and to reinstate in-person consultations with a medical professional prior to an abortion taking place at home.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is horrific and saddening to hear of this tragic forced abortion case in Ireland”.
“Sadly, forced abortions like this are made much easier by telemedicine home abortions, such as are available through the ‘pills by post’ scheme in England and Wales, because there are no in-person appointments. This means that not only is the gestation of the unborn child never verified in person, but coercion is very difficult to detect. Forced abortions could become even more common if all legal deterrents against late-term abortions are removed”.
“Members of the House of Lords must now come together to ensure that the safety of women and their unborn children is paramount, and agree to the amendments proposed to remove the dangerous abortion up to birth clause in the Crime and Policing Bill, and reinstate in-person medical consultations before abortions can take place”.
