Judge Mr Justice Mark Horner told Belfast High Court that women’s human rights were being breached by current laws.
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According to the Guardian, the ruling could lead to a relaxation of the law in relation to rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities.
The X case was a monumental Supreme Court ruling in 1992 which established the current law that an Irish woman had a right to an abortion if her life was in danger, including a risk of suicide.
Currently, abortion is only permitted in Northern Ireland if the mother’s life is directly at risk or if continuing the pregnancy would considerably harm her physical or mental health.
Although Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice had recommended abortion laws were relaxed in circumstances of FFA, the Human Rights Commission believed this change was not enough.
In an “historic” ruling, the court held that Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights is breached by the general prohibition of abortions in cases of FFA and pregnancies as a outcome of sexual crimes.
Instead abortion seems likely to be brought in through the courts, that weaselly, undemocratic method of choice by the human rights lobby, whose concept of human rights never seems to extend to prenatal life.
He said it woul be welcomed by the many vulnerable women and girls who face some of the toughest restrictions on access to abortion in Europe.
Mr Justice Horner said the rule violated the rights of women who had been victims of sexual assault, incest or fatal foetal abnormalities.
The 1967 Abortion Act has never applied in Northern Ireland. The BBC spoke to Ewart’s mother regarding the ruling and found that she had vast relief that women like her daughter would now be able to get the help they need without their actions being labelled as criminal.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which previously successfully challenged a gay adoption ban, brought about the case. So the parties may decide to appeal against the judgment rather than argue about how it should be given effect.
He said that in cases where a foetus can not survive outside the womb “there is no life to protect”. Undoubtedly, it will have placed these women who had to have their abortions in England under greater stress, both financial and emotional, by forcing them to have the termination carried out away from home.
What happens next? The judge has indicated an intention to grant a “declaration of incompatibility”, in that the legislation is contrary to human rights in the specific circumstances of his ruling, unless the existing legislation can read so as to comply with the Human Rights Act. That doesn’t change the law-though it allows for fast-track reform if ministers agree.
“The judge in this case has set the value of the unborn child at zero and ignored the well-documented negative after-effects of abortion for many women”. The judge ruled that it was inconsistent for Northern Irish women to be denied abortions locally but for the law to permit the same women to travel to access services.
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Kenny’s junior coalition partner, Labour, with whom he wants to return to authorities, has said it’ll campaign at elections early next year to permit abortion for events like incest, rape and lethal foetal abnormality.
