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The Irish Republic’s strict abortion law is being challenged in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Three Irish women, all of whom traveled to Britain to have an abortion, say the effective ban on abortion in Ireland violates the European Convention on Human Rights. A referendum to make Ireland’s abortion laws even more strict failed in 2002 (PA photo). The World’s religion correspondent, Jane Little, has our report.

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MARCO WERMAN: Hello Marco Werman, “This is The World.”  Three women are challenging Ireland’s strict abortion law.  Their case was heard today by European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  The women who travelled to Britain to have abortions say their human rights were breached.  The World’s Religion Editor, Jane Little has more.

JANE LITTLE: The three women are challenging a system which effectively bans abortions in Ireland.  While the procedure is legal if there is a risk to the life of the woman, the body that holds medical licenses in Ireland considers it malpractice for any doctor to perform an abortion.  And so several thousand woman each year travel to Britain to have one.  These women known in the case only as A, B, and C say that forcing them to travel abroad violated their human rights.  Nile Behan, is the Chief Executive of the Irish Family Planning Association which is supporting their petition.  “This is a very significant case; it’s very unusual for the Irish Government to appear in front of a grand chamber like this.  The main violation has been the threat to the health and their well being and the women experienced a considerable hardships because they couldn’t terminate their pregnancies in Ireland so they had to travel to the U.K. to do that.”  Today a 17 member panel of judges heard evidence in the case.  They heard how one woman was living in poverty and had children already in care.  Another worried about a possible ectopic pregnancy, and the third was in remission from cancer.  All had to borrow money to travel for an abortion abroad.  For its part, the Irish Government argued that protecting the life of the unborn child was based on moral values deeply embedded in Irish society and enshrined in Irish Law.  That Law dates from the 19^th century.  The co-founder of the Association of Catholic Lawyers of Ireland, Joanna Higgins, dismissed critics who say it is outdated.  “We don’t feel it’s backward at all, in fact, it’s the proper position protecting the unborn child and the fetus in the mother’s womb.  It’s actually

enshrined in the Laws Against the Person Act which also contains the law against murder, manslaughter, suicide, and similar types of offences.  So, if the European Court of Human Rights does decide to attack the Law in Ireland on the issue of abortion it would actually be attacking that particularly that statute, that criminal statute and presumably trying to force to change that.”  Ireland is one of a number of Catholic countries in Europe which traditionally have stricter abortion laws, but Ireland’s Law goes further than those in other nations according to Kelly Coldwell.  She’s a Senior Advisor on abortion at the International Planned Parenthood Federation.  “In Europe basically Ireland is the most restrictive case.  Ireland is the only developed country that is in the group of countries where abortion is only permitted in the case of saving the woman’s life and also allow in the case of risk of suicide.”  Although Irish society has been secularizing opposition to abortion has remained relatively strong.  Mary O’Rouke, a member of the governing party in the Irish party and a former health minister says the majority of people in Ireland still support the Law.  “I have found in all of my constituency dealings and in moving about the country that the feeling against abortion is very strong in Ireland.  There were three separate amendments put to the people to remove the ban from the constitution and on three occasions it was declined, quite forcibly.”  But if the three women win their case before the European Court of Human Rights the Irish Government could be forced to alter its law.  A final ruling in this case is expected next year.  For the World, this is Jane Little.

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