Michelle Goldberg explains how a case before the European Court of Human Rights rests on the question of whether reproductive rights should be universal:
On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, began hearing a case that has the potential to be a kind of Roe v. Wade for Europe. Three Irish women who had to travel to England for abortions are challenging their government’s abortion ban, saying the expense and hardship involved constitute a violation of their human rights. Precedent suggests that the court could agree. If it does, the repercussions will go far beyond reproductive rights, raising important questions about where in Europe national sovereignty ends and international guarantees of liberty begin.
Ireland’s abortion regime is paradoxical and shot through with hypocrisy. The law is draconian — abortion is banned in all cases except when a woman’s life is at stake, and is punishable by life in prison. But in 1992, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for Irish women to travel abroad for abortions, and every year, around 7,000 do, usually to England. Those challenging Ireland’s abortion law argue that this uneasy compromise isn’t enough and that, as Europeans, Irish women are entitled to basic reproductive rights inside their country as well as outside. In addition to abortion, their case is also about what it means to be a European.
