Background
C. found out she was pregnant not long after she finished chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer. She was scared about the impact the pregnancy might have on her health.
At the time, abortion was a crime in Ireland, although a legal ruling had established a woman’s right to abortion if her life was at risk because of pregnancy.
C. said she could not get proper information from doctors about the risks involved with her pregnancy. Believing that she could not establish her right to abortion in Ireland, C. travelled to England to have the procedure in 2005.
Along with two other women, A. and B., C. decided to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. A. and B. had also travelled to England for abortions in 2005, alone and in secret.
The three women claimed that Ireland’s abortion ban stigmatised and humiliated them, risked damaging their health and, in C.’s case, her life.