A 17-year-old girl has gone to the High Court to challenge a decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to stop her travelling to the UK for an abortion.
The girl is four months pregnant but her child suffers from a condtion where it has a life-expectancy of only three days outside the womb. The girl, who is known only as Miss D, is from the Leinster area, and is in the care of the HSE.
She made an application today on an ex-parte basis before Mr Justice Liam McKechnie who directed that the HSE and Attorney General be put on notice of it. He then returned it before him tomorrow.
Because the girl is a minor, she cannot bring the application herself and the proceedings have been brought by her boyfriend on her behalf.
Miss D wants the High Court to overturn a care order to the extent that it restricts her from 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 sucicide risk.
She is also seeking to overturn the HSE's decision to contact the gardai to request that she not be permitted to leave the State.