K.L was a 17 year old pregnant woman who was denied an abortion despite complications in her pregnancy. The foetus was anencephalic. Peruvian abortion laws allowed abortions in case there was a danger to the life or health of the mother. Anencephalic condition posed a life-threatening risk to K.L. The baby died after four days …Read more

A 17-year-old Peruvian minor was denied a legal therapeutic abortion when tests indicated that her fetus was anencephalic and a gynecologist and obstetrician advised her to terminate the pregnancy, informing her that continued pregnancy would cause risks to her life. The hospital director refused, alleging the abortion would be unlawful according to the Peruvian Criminal …Read more

Mrs. Thi-Nho Vo attended Lyons General Hospital for a medical examination during her pregnancy. On the same day, another woman, Mrs. Thi Thanh Van Vo, was at the hospital to have a contraceptive coil removed. When Dr. G, the doctor who was to remove the coil from Mrs. Thi Thanh Van Vo, asked for ‘Mrs. …Read more

Before the promulgation of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act, 78 senators made a referral to the French constitutional court challenging the constitutionality of the new bill according to article 61 of the French Constitution. The Act had three components. It extended to 12 weeks the period of time a woman could have an abortion …Read more

CES (‘the first appellant’) sought damages from Superclinics (‘respondent’) for the loss of an opportunity to terminate her pregnancy. The first appellant, a 21-year-old woman, visited a doctor at Superclinics after she missed her period. She stated that if she were found to be pregnant, she would like the pregnancy terminated. The doctor did not …Read more

The Speaker of the National Assembly and sixty-eight deputies lodged a constitutional challenge in the Conseil Constitutionnel against several controversial provisions in the field of reproductive health. These were articles 8, 9, 10, 12 and 14 of law n°75-17, Loi relative au respect du corps humain et loi relative au don et à l’utilisation des …Read more

Section 251(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada (the Code) permitted abortions to be performed only at accredited hospitals and then with approval from the performing hospital’s therapeutic abortion committee. Drs. Morgentaler, Smoling, and Scott had together established an abortion clinic in Toronto to perform abortions not approved by a therapeutic abortion committee.  Following public …Read more

The first defendant was a fourteen and a half year old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family friend. Her parents (second and third defendants) reported the rape to the police and inquired whether there was a process available to test the paternity of the fetus before the defendants aborted the pregnancy …Read more

The Applicants were two Irish companies that provided counseling to pregnant women, Open Door Counselling Ltd. and Dublin Well Woman Centre Ltd.; two counselors who worked for Dublin Well Woman, Bonnie Maher and Ann Downes; and two women of childbearing age, Mrs. X and Mrs. Geraghty. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children brought …Read more

The appellant, Mr Borowski, challenged the validity of s 251(4), (5) and (6) of the Canadian Criminal Code on the basis that the provisions contravened the rights of the fetus. He argued these provisions allowed for abortions to occur in circumstances that were too liberal, and, as such, they infringed a fetus’s rights to life, …Read more