DUBLIN, Ireland, May 3 (UPI) -- A pregnant Irish teenager whose baby is not expected to survive long after birth is petitioning for permission to travel to Britain for an abortion.
The 17-year-old girl, identified as Miss D, is asking the High Court in Dublin to allow her to leave the country for an abortion because the practice is illegal in Ireland except in cases where the mother's life is threatened, the BBC reported Thursday.
Doctors have said the fetus, which is in its fourth month of gestation, has a condition known as anencephaly, which kills newborn children after a maximum of three days because of missing brain and skull parts.
Miss D's mother supports her daughter's pursuit of an abortion, and the legal appeal to allow the girl to travel out of the country for the procedure was filed by the girl's boyfriend, since she is still a minor.
"No woman should have to endure the trauma of carrying to full term a child who will not live more than a few hours," said a spokeswoman for pro-choice groups Choice Ireland and Alliance for Choice, which have planned rallies outside the courthouse while the case is being heard.
