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Around 300 people attended a vigil for the child in August. Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland
Ms Y case

Anti-abortion campaigners to deliver gifts to baby delivered in Ms Y case

Campaigners say that the choice of date is symbolic.

ANTI-ABORTION CAMPAIGNERS will today deliver thousands of cards and gifts to the baby delivered after a woman who claimed she was suicidal was denied an abortion.

Ms Y, as the woman has become known, a non national who claimed she had been raped,  sought an abortion under Ireland’s relatively new laws but was refused.

It is reported that she appeared before a panel made up of a consultant obstetrician and two psychiatrists. The psychiatrists are believed to have determined that she was a suicide risk, however, the obstetrician said that she was far enough along to deliver the baby and the abortion was refused.

She then gave birth by caesarean section to the baby, who was born at just 25 weeks.

A HSE report found that she was ‘sad and depressed’ but not ‘actively suicidal’.

Today, members of the Life Institute will deliver cards and gifts to the Department of Health for the child.

Maria Mhic Meanmain of the Life Institutesaid the delivery was being made today because “it was the best estimate of the baby’s due date”.

She criticised the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, saying it had failed the mother and her child.

“In January 2013, at the Government’s own hearings on abortion, every single psychiatrist called to testify stated that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal thoughts in pregnancy. It was acknowledged that the treatment for suicidality is to make sure that women are safe, and that they have appropriate support, medication and psychological treatment.

“Most Irish people see the rank hypocrisy of Fine Gael, who were busy telling us that ‘every child matters’ but have now caused so much potential harm to this child and his mother.”

Read: Activists take train to Belfast to get abortion pills – and say they plan to take them

Read: ‘Very often women let down other women’: Pro-life campaigner “disappointed” with backlash after BBC honour

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