The European Court of Human Rights is due to rule on whether the Irish Republic's anti-abortion¹ laws violate women's human rights.

欧洲人权法庭将要对爱尔兰共和国的反流产法案是否侵犯妇女的人权做出裁决。

The case was brought to the Strasbourg-based court by three Irish women who say their health was put at risk by having to travel abroad for abortions².

Abortion is illegal in Ireland unless the woman's life is in danger.

If the court rules in favour of（支持，赞成） the three women, Ireland will be obliged to（不得不，有义务） change its laws.

The issue has divided the deeply Catholic nation.

Ireland has become much more liberal and secular³（世俗的） in recent years, says the BBC's Mark Simpson in Dublin, but there is still strong opposition⁴ to abortion in many quarters.

It is estimated that more than 4,000 Irish women every year have an abortion overseas, most of them in England.

'Profound moral values'

The lawyers for the three women have argued that having to leave Ireland for an abortion was humiliating and caused them distress⁵ and health complications.

Their identity has been kept confidential⁶, but two are Irish and one is a Lithuanian national living in Ireland. They are known only as A, B and C.

They went to the UK to have abortions after becoming pregnant unintentionally. One woman was at risk of an ectopic pregnancy⁷（子宫外孕） , where the foetus develops outside the womb, while another woman was undergoing chemotherapy（化学疗法） for cancer.

The third was a former alcoholic⁸ who feared having another child would jeopardise（危及） her chances of getting her first four children out of foster care（看护，照顾） .

If the court rules in the women's favour, as a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights the Republic of Ireland would be obliged to accept any changes to its law the court recommends.

But the court could rule that medical treatment and advice were available in Ireland or that the women did not take their case first to the Irish courts, as the Convention requires.

The Irish government has argued that in the past the Convention has recognised individual state's traditions regarding the rights of unborn children and that the country's abortion laws were based on "profound moral values deeply embedded⁹ in Irish society".