A challenge to the ban on abortion in Poland when a child has a disability was struck down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last week.

Without ruling on the merits, the Court said that the applicants could not personally claim to be “victims” of the ban as they were not pregnant or expecting a child with a disability.

At issue was a decision of the Polish Constitutional Court of October 22, 2020 which ruled that a long-standing law allowing “eugenic abortion”, or abortion when a foetus is “malformed”, was contrary to the constitutional principles of respect for human life and dignity, which is endowed to every human being from before birth.

The decision was welcomed by the pro-life European Centre for Law and Justice who called it a significant defeat of pro-abortion lobby groups from all over the world.