Amnesty: Ireland should end abortion ban, puts women at risk

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DUBLIN — Amnesty International is urging Ireland to repeal its constitutional ban on abortion and has unveiled a report detailing how women’s lives are endangered by Europe’s most restrictive laws.

The human rights watchdog made its appeal Tuesday in Dublin as it released a 113-page report containing accounts from women who faced medically dangerous pregnancies and, usually, received abortions in neighboring England.

The Irish government declined comment. Anti-abortion groups accused Amnesty of bias and of ignoring worse rights abuses committed by abortionists.

Amnesty’s case studies included women who risked blood poisoning from dead fetuses that doctors refused to remove quickly; who were refused abortions after doctors determined the unborn child couldn’t survive outside the womb; and who avoided post-abortion medical care in Ireland for fear of being identified as a criminal.