Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Miss D

I DON'T have the time or energy at the moment to get into too much the awful situation yet another young woman/girl has found herself thrown into like another bloody awful nightmare throw-back. But I have to say something.

What is going on? Well a 17-year-old girl, Miss D, who is four months pregnant and under the care of the HSE, found out terrible news about her pregnancy and made the decision to have an abortion. The foetus she is carrying suffers from a brain condition and would have a life expectancy of three days.

The Irish Times explains:

"the HSE had given certain directions that Miss D was not to be permitted to leave the State for the proposed termination. She had been told by the HSE that the Garda had been notified that she is not permitted to leave the State and that the care order makes it unlawful for her to leave the State without HSE permission, counsel said."

As Miss D is a minor, her boyfriend is seeking a judicial review to stop the HSE preventing her from leaving the country.

Back to the Irish Times:

"Miss D wants the court to overturn the care order made by the judge to the extent that it restricts her from travelling outside the State. She also wants the court to quash a decision of the HSE refusing to permit her to travel to procure the termination of her pregnancy unless she presented as a suicide risk."

While I would like to say it's hard to believe we are here again, it isn't. It is awful to think that at a time when this young person is vulnerable and in need of support that she is subjected to this and having to resort to the courts.

Someday a lesson will be learnt, until then, my heart goes out to Miss D.

5 comments:

Flirty Something said...

The only good thing to come of this is that at least people will tackle the canvassing politicians on this in the run up to the election - I hope.

Anonymous said...

Nor do I have the time, but here goes..

From the Irish Times today...

The State does not have any power to stop a teenage girl travelling to the UK for an abortion, the High Court was told yesterday by counsel for the Attorney General...

...Donal O'Donnell SC, for the State, said the Attorney General's position was that the HSE had no legal power to direct the Garda to restrain a person who was the subject of an interim care order.

Furthermore, the Garda did not have legal power to restrain the girl simply because she was the subject of a care order, while the HSE order did not restrain a person from travelling anywhere.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0502/1178025807370.html

Paige A Harrison said...

I always thought that our best attribute was our ability to have rules but not to take them too seriously. Could the HSE not allow Miss D to go to Alton Towers and well if she happened to have an abortion while she was out of the jurisdiction, well sure what could we do about it?!

This country is so sick, so often.
Paige

Boliath said...

Distraction and division, split the country along the tired same old lines in the run up to the election instead of paying attention to real current issues like healthcare and the lack of it.

My heart breaks for the poor girl caught in the middle of this, her boyfriend seems like a sound bloke and I commend him for his courage. It's fucking insane that this is public knowlesge, this should be a private matter for them.

God I get so mad when this shite happens in Ireland, I think we've some so far and then something like this happens to remind you that the church still have their claws in us.

Babaloo said...

In this country a lot of people argue that the life of the unborn needs to be valued and protected. We do care so much about the unborn and also mourn our dead - which is commendable surely. But what seems to be missing a lot is the care about the ones in between. Who cares about the torment of Miss D and what impact the pregnancy and birth and subsequent death of her baby would have on her?

Thankfully the courts saw sense and ruled that there is no law preventing the girl from leaving the country.

My heart also goes out to Miss D, what a torment to go through.