The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear a case taken by three women in Ireland who wish to overturn Ireland’s ban on abortion in a full hearing before its grand chamber of 17 judges. The case is being funded by the Irish Family Planning Association.

The women claim the Irish law on abortion jeopardises their health and their wellbeing and violates their human rights. The identities of the three will remain confidential. The Irish Times reported that the court’s decision to hold a hearing before the grand chamber rather than a smaller chamber of seven judges is regarded by legal experts as a sign of the significance of the issues at stake.

The three women at the centre of the case include a woman at risk of an ectopic pregnancy, where the foetus develops outside the womb; a pregnant woman who received chemotherapy for cancer; and a woman whose children were placed in care as she was unable to cope.

The Life Institute said that the IFPA had frequently tried to confuse ethical medical treatments with abortion, and that Ireland had one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, a statistic which showed abortion was never necessary in preserving the life of expectant mothers.

“The truth is that treatments for ectopic pregnancy, cancer, or any other medical condition, can be availed of in Ireland precisely because these treatments are not abortion – they do not involve a direct attack on the right-to-life of the unborn child,” they explained. “Abortion has no place in modern medicine and is no solution to a crisis pregnancy. This is a profoundly undemocratic and cynical attempt to force Ireland to accept the abortion industry.”