[JURIST] The High Court in Belfast [official website] on Monday ruled [judgment] that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws, which only allow abortion when the mother faces the risk of death or serious injury, is a violation of human rights. The court said that by failing to provide exceptions for women who have been victims of sexual abuse and cases in which a fatal fetal abnormality is present during the pregnancy, Northern Ireland had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights [official text]. The court noted that this decision was not one to establish a “general right” to abortion, as no such right exists except in limited circumstances. Although the law was held to be a violation of human rights, the court was unsure if a change in the law would be necessary or if it would be possible to apply the changes under the current laws. The case was brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy websites] and a local woman, Sarah Ewart [BBC News report], who went public about her difficulty obtaining an abortion after her baby was diagnosed with anencephaly.

Abortion [JURIST backgrounder] remains controversial topic in both Northern Ireland and the neighboring state of Ireland. Earlier this year AI said Ireland’s abortion laws threaten the lives [JURIST report] of women who choose to remain in the country. Last December the High Court of Ireland ruled [JURIST report] that a pregnant woman may be removed from life support, concluding that the life of an unborn child must be prioritized. Also that month the NIHRC announced that it had planned to file its lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the region’s law against abortions. Northern Ireland’s current abortion law was proposed shortly after the 2013 death of Savita Halappanavar [BBC report], a 31-year-old dentist who was denied a potentially life saving abortion. Following her death, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore [official website] pledged [JURIST report] to bring “legal clarity” to the country’s abortion laws.