'Miss D' case to resume in High Court

Lawyers representing a 17-year-old Irish girl who wants to travel to Britain for an abortion will return to the High Court today…

Lawyers representing a 17-year-old Irish girl who wants to travel to Britain for an abortion will return to the High Court today.

The teenager, known only as Miss D and from Leinster, is asking a judge to grant her permission to terminate the pregnancy abroad after health chiefs told her she could not.

The teenager is four months' pregnant and last week found out the foetus had not formed properly and suffered from anencephaly, meaning a major part of the brain, scalp and skull is missing. The newborn baby will live three days at most.

Miss D has been in the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE) since March but is now asking the court to step in and grant her permission to travel.

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The girl's mother, known only as Miss A, supports her daughter's decision to have an abortion.

It is the third day the case has been in the courts, and it is likely the judge will hear the mother's view. She insists she should have the final say in whether her daughter travels.

Lawyers for Miss D have already argued the HSE does not have the power to stop her and that in doing so they are breaching her human rights.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland, although women do have the right to information and travel, and it is estimated around 7,000 Irish women travel to the United Kingdom every year for abortions.