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Criminal Liability For Complicity In Abortions Committed Outside Ireland, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The legislative provisions which make it an offence to procure a miscarriage unlawfully or assist in the unlawful procurement are to be found in sections 58 and 59 or the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. In recent years the most common way for an Irish woman to obtain an abortion has been to leave the Republic and obtain such an operation in Britain, where the restrictions imposed on the medical profession with regard to performing operations are far less onerous. How then would the Irish courts view secondary parties to such extra-territorial activities?