A fourteen-year-old girl had been raped by a neighbour, and since there was no abortion in Ireland and wouldn’t be for almost thirty more years, her family took her to England to get one. When the state learned about this – the family had asked if the Gardaí would need the DNA evidence from the foetus in order to prosecute the rapist – it invoked the constitution, forced her to return home, and took away the family’s passports. On appeal, this judgement was struck down, but by then the girl had had a miscarriage. The man who raped her served just three years in prison.
