A fourteen year old Irish girl was raped in December 1991 by the father of her best girl friend and became pregnant. Together with her parents the girl decided to go to England for an abortion.

In the Irish Republic, information on where and how to have an abortion in any country is totally forbidden and after a referendum in 1983 the "equal right to life of the woman and the unborn child" was taken up in the Irish Constitution. However, Irish women secretly do go to England for abortion.

The parents had notified the police of the rape and had also inquired if it might be useful to take along some foetal tissue from England as a possible proof of the identity of the rapist. Of its own accord the police notified the Public Prosecutor of the intention of the trip of the parents and their daughter.

Thereupon the Public Prosecutor summoned the girl and her parents to return to Ireland under penalty of imprisonment. After their return to Ireland, the pregnant girl was forbidden by the High Court to leave
Ireland during a period of nine months. She was admitted in a hospital since she had announced that she wanted to commit suicide.

Massive protest inside and outside Ireland due to immediate actions by Irish Women's Groups and many protests from outside Ireland, the injunction for the girl to leave Ireland was uplifted two weeks later by the Irish Supreme Court on February 26. The Dublin Well Woman Centre immediately sent out a press release that "they welcomed the decision and that they trusted that the girl and her family could now deal with the matter in complete privacy and with every possible support."

Irish Women's Groups are determined that the equal right to life amendment should be removed from the Irish Constitution to prevent such tragedies. They will start an intensive Campaign to fight for this aim.