The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of A, B and C v. Ireland has found that Ireland has failed to properly implement the constitutional right to abortion where a woman's life is at risk.
The case was taken by three applicants, all of whom became pregnant unintentionally, reside in Ireland and had to travel to the UK in order to have an abortion. The Court dismissed the first and second applicants' arguments of violation of Article 8 (right to private life and family) but found that Ireland had breached the third applicant's right to private life and family.
Irish law permits abortion in Ireland in the limited circumstances where a woman's life is at risk from the pregnancy. The third applicant had a rare form of cancer and she feared that it might relapse as a result of her being pregnant. She decided to have an abortion. However she found that because of lack of information and an implemented framework, she had to travel to England in order to do so. Ireland's failure to prescribe a procedure or criteria to determine whether a woman legally qualifies to have an abortion, coupled with the fact that criminal sanctions exist for an unlawful abortion, led to the Court finding of a violation of Article 8.
Please click here to read the judgment in full.
Please click here to view the Court's press release.
The Irish Family Planning Association and the Pro Life Campaign have issued press releases.
Please see www.ifpa.ie and www.prolifecampaign.ie.