THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights should take into account Ireland’s “outstanding record of medical care for pregnant women” when hearing a challenge by three Irish women to this State’s ban on abortion, the Pro-Life Campaign has said.
Its statement was made in response to the news that the 17-judge grand chamber of the Court has agreed to hear the women’s challenge.
It is expected to hear the case later this year.
The women claim the restrictive nature of Irish law on abortion jeopardises their health and wellbeing, and violates their human rights.
Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign said Ireland had a “safer maternal mortality record than countries like Britain and the Netherlands, where abortion is effectively legal on demand”.
She said those “seeking to have abortion imposed on Ireland persist in blurring crucial ethical distinctions between necessary medical treatments in pregnancy and induced abortion, where the life of the unborn child is attacked”.
This attitude had led to abortion on demand in many European countries, she said.
The solution was not legalised abortion but rather a renewed commitment to making society more supportive of expectant mothers and their unborn children, she said.
The court’s decision to hold a hearing before 17 judges rather than a smaller seven-judge chamber is seen by legal experts as indicative of the seriousness of the issues at stake.
The three women taking the case include one at risk of an ectopic pregnancy; a woman who received chemotherapy for cancer, and a woman whose children were placed in care as she was unable to cope.
