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Ireland passes 'lifesaving' abortion bill

 
Published July 12, 2013

Dublin, Ireland

'Lifesaving' abortion bill passes in Ireland

Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted today to back Ireland's first bill on abortion, legalizing the practice in exceptional cases where doctors deem the woman's life at risk from her pregnancy, as the predominantly Catholic country took its first legislative step away from an outright ban. The 127-31 vote capped a grueling debate that locked lawmakers in argument from Wednesday morning to 5 a.m. Thursday and, after a pause for sleep, through midnight. The government drafted the bill in response to last year's case of a miscarrying woman who died in an Irish hospital from blood poisoning nearly a week after being refused a termination.

Belfast, N. Ireland

Northern Ireland braces for violence

Prompted by mounting fears over the prospect of widespread sectarian rioting this weekend, the Northern Ireland police chief has taken the unusual step of calling in hundreds of reinforcements from Scotland, Wales and England to help local officers. It is the first time since the British army withdrew from the streets in July 2007 that authorities have turned to outsiders for policing help. Leaders appealed for calm in advance of today's Protestant parades and bonfires on "the Twelfth," an annual sectarian holiday that always inflames tensions with the Catholic minority. It's the high point in the Orange Order calendar, during which hundreds of thousands of Protestants celebrate historic victories and display their continued opposition to Irish nationalist aspirations.

Washington

Judge: no more groin pat-downs at Gitmo

A federal judge ordered the military Thursday to stop touching the groins of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when they are moved from their cells to speak with lawyers. The procedure had led some prisoners to stop meeting with or calling their lawyers. In a 35-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth called the searches "religiously and culturally abhorrent" to Muslims. He portrayed the procedure as unnecessary and intended to "actively discourage" meetings with lawyers. He said the warden must return to a longtime procedure in which guards shake detainees' underwear by the band to dislodge any contraband but do not to touch their genitals or buttocks.