THE TEENAGER AT the centre of the Miss D High Court case in 2007 said she feels “haunted” having never gotten to see her baby’s face or have the chance to hold her when she was born.
Amy Dunne, now 29 years old, who fell pregnant at 16 while in State care, was told her child had a rare condition and it was unlikely she would survive outside the womb.
She decided she wanted to have an abortion but was advised by social workers that she, and anyone who travelled with her for an abortion, would be prosecuted.
She won a High Court case and the right to travel to the UK, opting for an induced labour instead of an abortion, but the child died before birth.
As she was rushing for a flight back to Ireland hours after giving birth, she said she never got to hold her child or see her face – something which still haunts the young woman today.
“We received our passports straight away [when] I won the court case. I had decided not to have an abortion half way through the court case after researching it. I got advice and I decided to go for an inducement. We planned, and we went ahead, and went to England on a Monday and we stayed until Friday morning,” she told RTÉ Radio 1′s Sean O’Rourke programme.
“I went in on the Thursday having contractions and I refused to take any medication [unknown to me] that Jasmine had actually already passed away.
“They decided not to tell me because they knew that would really upset me. So in my young brain, I thought maybe she would take a breath if I went through with the 16 hours labour and didn’t take pain relief.
“I think around two hours before she came out, I finally agreed to morphine because everybody kept insisting that I go ahead and take it, so they obviously knew that it wouldn’t harm her.”
“This was the worst part… I probably fell asleep for a moment or I wasn’t well. So when I woke up I just remember my boyfriend at the time putting me in a wheelchair and wheeling me into the next room, and by God that’s not what you’re expecting to see. She had fingernails and toenails, and everything that a full-term child has, only for she was small.
Amy said she only had a “very small moment” to come to terms with what had happened and that her daughter had a blanket over her face when she went in to see her. She recalled giving birth at around four or five in the morning and having a flight to catch at 11am that same morning.
It took me a few times to go back in and get to grips with it. A few times in a very small moment because I knew I didn’t have time, I knew I had an 11 o’clock flight. I eventually went in and I held her fingers and her toes and I touched her but things moved so, so fast.
“I found out afterwards – her face was covered with a blanket – that everyone else has seen my child’s face but me but because I wasn’t in my own country and because I was in a rush to Ireland.”
“I didn’t have time to get my head around what happened – to hold her or look at her, so I have never gotten to hold her because I was in a rush for a flight back to Ireland.
“With the whole court case and being exposed. If this had never happened, I would have went and had an abortion. I would have lived with the regret of having an abortion but now that’s not what I have, I have a baby I carried, I have a connection, I have a grave, I’ve had a funeral. I have pictures, I have a child, I have memories. I have newspaper clippings.
“I am forever haunted instead of just being able to go and do what I needed to do.”
Court
Amy also spoke of why she felt she needed to take the court case at such a young age and the reaction of social workers who told her Gardaí were warned that she was not to leave the country.
“After being down with the social workers things got very extreme, all I remember is one minute I went down looking for support and the minute I’m standing in the High Court,” she said.
“I was told to receive some information from a solicitor after speaking with the social workers.
“I was told that the garda station had been informed and that the passport office had been informed. There was no way that I would be given a passport. If I went to England to have an abortion, I would be done for murder and anyone that I took with me would be done as an accomplice to murder.
“Things got very serious so after speaking to a few adults the advice was I just ring a solicitor for a chat. So I rang a solicitor and all of a sudden that was it, I was walking into a High Court.”
The high-profile case at the time sparked a debate among pro-life and pro-choice activists. Crowds from both sides gathered outside the High Court during the trial.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say