One step forward, one step back....

The Irish teenager gains the right to travel for an abortion:

An Irish teenager has won a High Court battle in Dublin to be allowed to visit Britain for an abortion.

The 17-year old was told by doctors her four-month foetus would not live more than a few days beyond its birth.

She is in the care of the Irish Republic's health service, which had issued an order stopping her from going to Britain.

Abortion is illegal in the Republic except when the mother is threatened by a medical condition or a suicide risk.

Thousands of Irish women get around the ban by privately travelling to Britain, where abortion was legalised in 1967, to undergo terminations.

The Irish Republic has a constitutional ban on abortion, but in 1992 made it legal to receive information about foreign abortion services and to travel for abortions in Britain.

An estimated 7,000 women travel outside Ireland each year to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

The pope says every politician who voted for abortion rights is going to Hell:

The Pope says he's in favour of excommunicating Roman Catholic politicians who support a proposed law allowing women to have abortions in Mexico City.

That'll show'em!