Associated Press: EU Court condemns Irish ban on abortion

The Fullerton Sentinel

The AP is reporting that the European Court of Human Rights (strange name considering their ruling!) ruled Thursday in a judgment that harshly criticized Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion violates the rights of pregnant women to receive proper medical care in life-threatening cases.

The AP report says that: "The judgment from the Strasbourg, France-based court will put Ireland under pressure to draft a law extending limited abortion rights to women whose pregnancies represent a potentially fatal threat to their own health."

Although the headline, similar ones appearing on numerous sites and papers, appears to be a lift on all abortions, is misleading, the fact remains that elective abortions are still illegal throughout the island nation. 

Abortion as a means of birth control or as a means for minimizing the unintended consequences of a woman's actions finds no home in Ireland as it should be in the United States. 

The notion that "it's a woman's body" and therefore we must all allow for mothers to murder their children is painfully flawed.  Abortion should be reserved only for those who are gravely ill, the decision for which should be made by a licensed medical doctor based on survivability of the person and perhaps the patient's preference. 

Selective abortion as a means of birth control should be prosecuted as first degree murder.