Case challenging rights of unborn in Ireland could be ‘Roe v. Wade of Europe’
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The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg

Strasbourg, France, Dec 9, 2009 / 02:18 am (CNA).- Ireland’s constitutional amendment protecting the unborn could be overturned in a “pivotal” case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Some are calling the case “the Roe v. Wade of Europe.”

Three women who sought abortions in Ireland sued under the European Convention on Human Rights to overturn the country’s legal protections for pre-born children. The three women, who obtained abortions in Britain, are trying to establish a “right” to abortion in Ireland in a case titled A, B, and C v. Ireland.

The women also want to establish a precedent that would define abortion as a right across all of Europe under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The lawsuit will be decided in the Grand Chamber of the EHCR in Strasbourg, France. The American groups Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Family Research Council (FRC) filed a joint brief in November 2008 with two other pro-life organizations at the court’s request after it allowed the groups to intervene as defendants in this case.

“No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless,” commented Roger Kiska, ADF legal counsel. “Ireland’s constitutional amendment defending innocent life is under attack, and the stakes are high for all of Europe.”

ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy said the case is “pivotal” not only to Europe but to America as well, because American courts increasingly consider what other countries are doing when deciding their own cases.

“Because this case could be the Roe v. Wade of Europe, its impact upon the U.S. should not be underestimated,” he added.

The UK-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and its supporters will hold a vigil outside the ECHR in Strasbourg on Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 12 noon.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: thomas shanahan
syracuse ny 13205 12/10/2009 10:52 AM EST
When a woman choses to have an abortion she is playing the roll of a misfortune tell.The so called perfect family (one boy one girl) is really no prediction of the future.If one examined the history of the President Kennedy family tree old Maggy Sanger would blush. This would have chopped don the whole family tree....the end of the Kennedys
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Published by: Bosco
Bantry/County Cork/ Ireland 12/09/2009 03:04 PM EST
This unholy predicament could be seen coming from a mile away. In order to ease Irish consciences in the run-up to the first vote on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, EU leadership gave solemn ‘assurances’ that our BUNREACHT NA hÉIREANN, (Constitution) with its straightforward prohibition of abortion would remain inviolate. The Irish voters resoundingly rejected the Lisbon Treaty at first but were later compelled by the Irish Government to revote. Somewhere in between those two votes, the economy of Ireland crumbled catastrophically. Sadly, the second vote passed owing in no small part to the world financial collapse and the stark realization that the EU would not lift a finger to save quaint Catholic Ireland from its debt crisis if the Lisbon Treaty was voted down a second time. Now this present reneging by the EU and its Courts on its pre-Lisbon guarantee to honour the integrity of the Constitution arrives at a time when the Catholic Church in Ireland is mired in a monstrous clerical sexual abuse scandal (see Murphy Report). The weight of moral authority that might have been mustered by the Irish hierarchy to combat this travesty is spent. Moral and ethical opposition to abortion are viewed in the corridors of EU power as exclusively ‘Catholic’ issues contentious for only the quaintest of minorities in the EU, i.e. traditional Irish Catholics. The European Court of Human Rights will bring about the 'blood-dimmed tide’ our beloved Yeats once foresaw. God help us!
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Published by: myles keogh
Fort Riley Kansas 12/09/2009 08:59 AM EST
The European Union is run by a bunch of secular, aetheist socialists. Unfortuantely Ireland is becoming more and more secular. By joining the EU Ireland gave up its sovereignty which it fought so long to gain from the UK. And she did all for money. Let this be an example to all that when you cut a deal with the devil when he comes for repayment it means he wants your soul. When Ireland joined the EU for economics it cut a deal with the devil. When this court rules in favor of these pro abortion forces (and I have no doubt they will) then Ireland will have to act one way or the other. If Ireland remains true to herself, her faith, her national sovereignity, her identity and her history she will stand up and say enough is enough and leave the EU. If she chooses to go along with the potential pro abort ruling then she like France, Spain, Belgium and so many other former Catholic countries in Europe will fall deeper into the abyss.
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Published by: John
England 12/09/2009 08:55 AM EST
Hmm, whilst I am strongly pro-life (or simply pro-life, full stop) I'm also strongly anti-EU. I see this case as a potential opportunity for millions more Europeans to wake up to the fact that the European Union is an authoritarian, anti-democratic, unaccountable dictatorship. If the EU decides to throw Ireland under the bus here, despite earlier saying to the Irish that they wouldn't interfere with their abortion laws, I can see the anti-EU, pro-freedom movement gaining even more strength.
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