Why This UN Ruling Has Irish Pro-Life Groups Up in Arms

Pro-life groups in Dublin, Ireland, are making their voices heard after a U.N. decision calling for an end to "restrictive" abortion laws. 

The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled Thursday that laws banning the procedure violated women's rights - a judgment pro-life advocates say contradicts the global body's mission.

"Instead of protecting the most vulnerable, the U.N. has chosen, yet again, to champion abortion and has trampled on the right of people with disabilities," said Niamh Ui Bhriain, from Ireland's Life Institute. 

The CatholicNewsAgency.com reports The Republic of Ireland's constitution recognizes the right to life of the mother as well as the unborn child under its eighth amendment. 

But legal changes to the amendment are being pursued that will ultimately lead to a direct path for pregnancy termination in Ireland.

The U.N. committee also stated that the Irish government must repay Amanda Mellet, a woman that wanted an abortion back in 2011. The panel said her rights were violated when she was told she couldn't terminate her pregnancy.

The committee is claiming that the woman suffered from severe emotions and mental pain, saying she was forced to choose between "continuing her non-viable pregnancy or traveling to another country while carrying a dying fetus, at personal expense, and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered." 

"I'm afraid that the Human Rights Committee has exposed itself as effectively a pro-abortion lobby group, which, at the very least, calls in to question the body's right to comment on matters in relation to human rights," said Michael Kelly, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper. 

The judgment by the U.N. panel is the first time an international human-rights committee has determined that a country's abortion ban violates a woman's rights.