The European Court of Human Rights threw out a case Thursday challenging Poland’s legal protections for unborn babies.
Politico reports eight Polish women of childbearing age claimed their country’s abortion ban violates their human rights because they cannot abort unborn babies with disabilities.
Poland is one of the few countries in Europe that protects unborn babies by banning almost all abortions. In 2020, its Constitutional Court struck down an exception in the ban that had allowed unborn babies with disabilities to be aborted, ruling it to be discriminatory and unconstitutional. Now, abortions are prohibited except in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s life.
The case before the European Court of Human Rights challenged the 2020 ruling, with eight women claiming the law would “force them to carry any future pregnancy to term, even in cases where the fetus developed abnormalities,” according to Politico.
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However, the court dismissed their case, saying the women did not provide sufficient evidence to support their claim. The pro-abortion women’s argument was “too remote and abstract for them to arguably claim to be ‘victims’” the court said.
“The Court found that the applicants had failed to provide any convincing medical evidence proving that they had been at real risk of being directly affected by the 2020 legislative amendments. Nor had they produced any documents relating to their personal circumstances, making it impossible to assess their individual situations,” a press release from the court said.
The court also refuted the claim that the abortion ban could endanger women’s lives by quoting the law itself, which allows abortions if the mother’s life is at risk.
The abortion activists cannot appeal.
Poland has some of the strongest legal protections for unborn babies in Europe, and polls show a “silent majority” supports pro-life laws.
