The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has reserved judgment on the ABC case which seeks to impose abortion on Ireland. The case is sponsored by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) and the plaintiffs claim that our ban on abortion violates their human rights.

The hearing of the case began on December 9th before the Strasbourg court’s grand chamber of 17 judges. Members of Youth Defence join with international pro-life friends in organising a protest outside the court, telling the international media that “the IFPA and the ECHR have no right to interfere in the democratic decisions made by the Irish people who wish to keep Ireland abortion-free.”

Three petitioners in the case, only named as A, B & C, allege that they were forced to travel overseas to obtain abortions, undergoing “unnecessary expenses and hardship” due to the nation's pro-life laws. They claim that the State’s abortion law violates a key article of the European Convention on Human Rights - Article 8 which says a person has the “right to respect for private and family life”.

In the Court, the Irish Attorney General gave a strong defence of Ireland’s values and our pro-life laws, insisting that Ireland’s legal position on abortion had been endorsed in three referendums. (This was in stark contrast to the pro-abortion arguments of his office during the D case, and is most likely a result of the hundreds of complaints his office received when Youth Defence made his position at that time widely known.)

The European Court will give its judgment on the case in January. ACTION REQUIRED:

We need to urge the government to:

1) Continue to vigorously oppose the claims made in the ABC case and to defend the right to life of the unborn child.

2) Point out to the ECHR that our pro-life laws have made Ireland, according to the World Health Organisation, the safest place in the world to have a baby.

3) The government should also issue a statement confirming that any anti-life ruling by the European Court of Human Rights is rejected vigorously by the government on behalf of the pro-life majority.

We strongly urge you to call your TDs TODAY and to ensure that our government is doing just that.

In addition we urge you to call:

Micheál Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs on 021 4320088 or 01 6312333 or email him at

And

Dermot Ahern, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on 042 9339609/042 9329023 or email him at

 Make it your Advent task – do it today. Keep Ireland abortion-free.

You can see a live webcast of the court procedings at this link

http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/EN/Header/Press/Multimedia/Webcasts+of+public+hearings/webcastEN_media?&p_url=20091209-1/en/