Three women living in the Irish Republic challenged the country’s strict abortion law at the European Court of Human Rights yesterday, claiming that their rights had been violated. The three — two Irish nationals and a Lithuanian — all left their homes in Ireland to have abortions in Britain. They are supported in their case by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and the Irish Family Planning Association.
Ireland’s abortion law dates from 1861, and bans the procedure except where there is a risk to the life of the mother, including that of suicide. An estimated 140,000 women have crossed the Irish Sea for abortions in the past 30 years, with the number presently running at an average of 6,000 a year.
One of the women in the case had had her four children placed in foster care and sought an abortion to avoid jeopardising her chances of reuniting thefamily. Another woman was at risk of an extrauterine pregnancy while the third, a Lithuanian, became pregnant while in remission from cancer. She understood that the pregnancy might cause her cancer to return, and decided to have an abortion as she was “unclear, and concerned about the risks to her health and the life and to the foetus, if she continued to term.” Times Online
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