Women and girls in Ireland who need an abortion are stigmatised and treated like criminals, a new report by Amnesty International has claimed.

According to She is Not a Criminal: The Impact of Ireland's Abortion Law, the law should be changed here to allow females to access safe and legal abortions.

Ireland's abortion law, it noted, is one of the most restrictive in the world. This is the only country in Europe, aside from Andorra, Malta and San Marino, that does not allow women to obtain an abortion even in cases of rape, or severe or fatal foetal impairments.

As a result, thousands of women and girls travel outside of Ireland every year to have abortions, ‘at considerable mental, financial and physical cost'.

Figures just released show that in 2014, 3,735 women and girls provided Irish addresses at abortion clinics in England and Wales. This figure is thought to be an underestimate of the true figure, because some women do not reveal their real addresses, while others travel to other countries for the procedure.

"The recent marriage equality referendum showed a country that prides itself on being an open and inclusive society, but all is not well in the Republic of Ireland. The human rights of women and girls are violated on a daily basis because of a constitution that treats them like child-bearing vessels," commented Amnesty International's secretary general, Salil Shetty.

He insisted that females who need abortions in Ireland ‘are treated like criminals, stigmatised and forced to travel abroad, taking a serious toll on their mental and physical health'.

"The Irish State can no longer ignore this reality, and the appalling impact it is having on thousands of people every year," he said.

The report provides testimonies from a number of women, including one who said she was forced to carry a dead foetus for weeks because doctors said they wanted to be absolutely sure there was no heartbeat.

"I wouldn't be inclined to trust services for women in this country at the moment," she commented.

Meanwhile, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and former Master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, Dr Peter Boylan, told Amnesty that under the current law, ‘we must wait until women become sick enough before we can intervene. How close to death do you have to be? There is no answer to that'.

Also commenting on the issue, Amnesty Ireland's executive director, Colm O'Gorman, said that this country ‘turns a blind eye when women travel abroad for abortions and is indifferent to the suffering involved'.

"It condemns the weak, poor and vulnerable who cannot travel to become criminals for making decisions about their bodies, decisions which sometimes are a matter of life and death.

"Ireland must amend the constitution and remove the protection of the foetus. This needs to happen urgently as Ireland's current laws are putting the lives of women and girls at risk every day," Mr O'Gorman insisted.

In response to this issue, Amnesty International has launched its ‘My Body My Rights' campaign in Ireland. According to Amnesty, this ‘will see a global movement of seven million people campaign on a human rights issue in the Republic of Ireland for the first time, with petitions, demonstrations and letters targeting Irish leaders'.

For more information on this campaign, click here