A four months' pregnant 17-year-old girl in the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE), whose foetus has a stated after-birth life expectancy of three days because it suffers from a condition where a major part of its brain is absent, has gone to the High Court seeking to stop the HSE restraining her travelling to the UK for an abortion.
The application was made yesterday on an ex parte (one side only represented) basis before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie who directed that the HSE and Attorney General be put on notice of it and then returned it before him today. He also suggested the girl's lawyers should consider whether to notify her mother of the application.
The girl, whom the court ordered can only be identified as Miss D from the Leinster region, was in court with her boyfriend for the brief hearing. Because the girl is a minor, she cannot bring the application herself and the proceedings have been brought by her boyfriend on her behalf.
Outlining the case, Gerard Hogan SC, for Miss D, said there was a huge urgency to the application. Miss D is in the care of the HSE as a result of a care order made by the District Court in February last. The care order was put in place as a result of the conduct of the girl's mother. Her father has been absent from her life, counsel added.
When the care order was made, it was not known Ms D was pregnant, counsel added. Last week, Miss D found out that the foetus she is carrying suffers from a condition called anencephaly where a major part of the brain is absent. The life expectation for such a baby after birth is three days' maximum, Mr Hogan said.
Until that "unfortunate news" last week, there was no question of Miss D wanting a termination, counsel stressed. That issue had only arisen in the last few days. Following the very unfortunate news, she had decided to go to the UK for termination of her pregnancy.
However, relying on that care order, 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.
Miss D is seeking leave from the court to bring judicial review proceedings in which she wants the court to make certain orders and declarations. The proposed action is against the District Court judge who made the care order in her case, the HSE, Ireland and the Attorney General.
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. She is also seeking to overturn the HSE's decision to contact the Gardaí to request that she not be permitted to leave the State.
She wants an order directing the HSE to advise the Gardaí that they consent to her travelling to the UK. The court will also be asked to permit her to seek declarations that there is no lawful basis for interference with her right to terminate her pregnancy and that the HSE decision to prevent her leaving the State to procure a termination of her pregnancy constitutes an unlawful interference with her constitutional rights to personal autonomy, bodily integrity, private life and to travel.
Mr Justice McKechnie said he would adjourn the matter until this morning and asked that the respondents, the HSE, the State and the District Court judge be put on notice of the proceedings. The girl's legal team should also consider whether the girl's mother should be put on notice of the matter, he added. Mr Justice McKechnie ordered the media not to identify the young girl. He said he was making that order under the express provisions of Section 45 of the Childcare Act relating to minors.
