Human Rights Court Case Could be Europe's Roe v. Wade

(Hat tip: PewSitter.com)

Keep an eye on this one:

STRASBOURG, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The importance of the case of three women challenging the Irish constitutional protections for the unborn has "grown exponentially" says a pro-life attorney that is involved in the case. Not only is the Republic of Ireland's ability to have legal protections for the unborn now at stake in the high profile case currently before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but potentially the entire continent's.

"This case could be the Roe v. Wade of Europe, so its importance should not be underestimated," said Roger Kiska of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the public-interest legal alliance that is acting to protect the existing law.

The significance of the ABC v. Ireland case has increased sharply since Wednesday when the court allowed the case to go to the Grand Chamber reserved for those cases of international significance. Decisions of the Grand Chamber are binding on all lower courts and all member states. Attorneys say that the decision in the case will now affect policy for all of the European Union.

In 2007, three abortion activists filed a complaint with the ECHR claiming that the protections for unborn children in the Irish constitution jeopardized their "health and wellbeing" when they had to travel abroad for abortions. This, they said, placed "enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens" upon them. They are claiming that the law created "delays and hardships" resulting in each of them having a later abortion.

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"Ireland's constitutional amendment defending innocent life is under attack, and now the stakes have just gotten higher," said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska.

"The case is not only pivotal to Europe; it is pivotal to America as well," Kiska added. "With ever-greater frequency, American courts have considered what other countries are doing when deciding their own cases."

My Comments:
That last paragraph in the quoted excerpt raises an important point. Should abortion become a "human right" across the entire European Union, given "swing vote" Justice Kennedy's penchant for relying on foreign precedence when it comes to giving jurisprudential content to such vacuous concepts as "[the] mysteries of the universe" and "the meaning of human existence", it would make overturning Roe v. Wade and its progeny that much more difficult.