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Doc. 11248
17 April 2007
Verdict of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a refusal of performing an abortion in Poland
Written Declaration No 391
This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it
On 20 March 2007 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued an unprecedented verdict in the case of Alicja Tysiąc versus Republic of Poland. Alicja Tysiąc had accused Poland of having been refused a right to an abortion. The woman wanted to perform an abortion on the basis of an alleged threat to her health. As confirmation of her concerns she presented an opinion of a single general practitioner rejecting at the same time an unanimous opinion of eight specialists. ECHR accepted Tysiac’s arguments and awarded her 25,000 Euros in damages. ECHR, invoking the mother’s right to privacy, in fact found its primacy over the child’s right to life. It was an unprecedented verdict as well as an interference in a domestic law system of State in the field of a right to abortion.
It creates justified anxieties that it is the beginning of a dangerous process of ideological interpretation of a Convention in order to force the member states to change the abortion law.
We, undersigned members of the Council of Europe, categorically protest against it.
Signed: 1
__________________________
Total = 21
1 SOC:
Socialist Group
EPP/CD: Group of the European
People’s Party
ALDE: Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats for Europe
EDG: European Democratic
Group
UEL: Group of the Unified European
Left
NR: not registered in a group