Ireland’s restrictive ban on abortions subjected a woman to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and should be ended, a groundbreaking decision from a United Nations committee states.

The findings from the Geneva-based Human Rights Committee are based on the case of Amanda Mellet, who was denied access to an abortion in 2011. In November 2013, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a complaint on her behalf.

Medical providers told the Dublin resident during her 21st week of pregnancy that her fetus had congenital heart defects, and would die in utero or shortly after birth. She was told she could either carry the fetus, which would likely die inside her, to term, or travel abroad, though no specifics regarding medical instructions were given, nor were medical providers abroad suggested.

After consulting with a family planning organization, she went to Liverpool to terminate the pregnancy. Just 12 hours after the medical procedure, still bleeding and weak, she and her husband had to return to Dublin because they could not afford to stay any longer, and did not leave with the baby’s remains. Once home, the Irish hospital did not provide aftercare or bereavement counseling, as would have been provided had she suffered a spontaneous stillbirth. The remains were unexpectedly delivered to her three weeks later.

The UN committee states that, as a result of Irish law, Mellet was subjected to “conditions of intense physical and mental suffering,” and her “suffering was further aggravated by the obstacles she faced in receiving needed information about her appropriate medical options from known and trusted medical providers.”

The State’s legal system “failed to adequately take into account her medical needs and socio-economic circumstance,” and as such “constituted discrimination,” the committee adds.

“Many of the described negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if the author had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of the health professionals whom she knew and trusted; and if she had been afforded needed health benefits that were available in Ireland, were enjoyed by others, and she could have enjoyed had she continued her non-viable pregnancy to deliver a stillborn child in Ireland,” the ruling reads.

It states that Ireland must now provide full reparation, including compensation and psychological treatment, for Mellet. In addition, it says