DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish High Court on Friday upheld the right of a 13-year-old alleged rape victim to leave the country to have an abortion abroad. Abortion is illegal in staunchly Roman Catholic Ireland unless the woman's life is in danger, but there is persistent controversy over laws which until recently even made it illegal for women to go abroad for a termination. After three days of secret proceedings, Justice Hugh Geoghegan endorsed a lower court decision to allow the girl, a member of a travelling community who is 13 weeks pregnant and in the care of health authorities, to leave the country. The girl's parents had appealed against the initial decision with the support of anti-abortion groups. Youth Defence, a pro-life group close to the proceedings, said the parents had accepted the ruling and would not be making a further appeal to the Irish Supreme Court, national RTE radio said. The report said the girl had at all times wanted an abortion because she could not relate to the baby, and that her parents had at first advised a termination but had changed their minds. Geoghegan said the girl had been brutally raped in August by another traveller who was a close friend of the family. The radio report said the girl had told one of the doctors that she would kill herself if forced to have the child, and that the judge had said this risk was more acute now that the pregnancy was obvious. The case has added force to calls for a fresh review of abortion legislation. Although Irish women have for generations gone in secret to neighbouring Britain for abortions, the law was changed only two years ago to prevent the state stopping them if it found out. It also for the first time allowed the publication of information about abortion facilities abroad. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said any review in abortion rules would not be concluded until at least 1999.