Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Ireland loses ban on abortion data Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 15:33:28 EST Message-ID: \SE A \SS (WS) \HD Ireland loses ban on abortion data \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT STRASBOURG, France STRASBOURG, France (AP) - The European Court of Human Rights yesterday voided an Irish court ban on providing information to Irish women seeking abortions abroad. The court did not rule on Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion. But it said preventing Irish women from getting information on where to get abortions abroad, notably Britain, violated the European Convention of Human Rights. The 15-8 ruling came five weeks before a referendum in staunchly Roman Catholic Ireland on that and other abortion-related issues. The court's rulings are binding on the 26 nations that are members of the Council of Europe. The court is an arm of the council. The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom "to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers," the court said. The abortion-information ban was in a 1988 Irish Supreme Court ruling against two groups that provided names and addresses of abortion clinics in Britain to pregnant Irish women. The organizations, the Open Door Counseling Service and the Dublin Well Women Clinic, were awarded $319,600 in costs and damages. Representatives of the two counseling centers welcomed yesterday's ruling. Marie Vernon, a spokeswoman for Ireland's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the ruling reflected "unprecedented" interference in Irish affairs. The court said the clinics did not advocate abortions but simply provided information readily available elsewhere in Ireland, including magazines and telephone books. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM