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STRASBOURG, France (LifeSiteNews) — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected a case aimed at challenging Poland’s ban on eugenic abortions. 

The ECHR has declared the applications of eight women in the case A.M. and Others v. Poland inadmissible because the applicants “failed to provide any convincing medical evidence proving that they had been at real risk of being directly affected” by the Polish law preventing women from aborting their child due to fetal abnormalities. 

“The consequences for the applicants of the legislative amendments were thus too remote and abstract for them to arguably claim to be ‘victims’ within the meaning of the European Convention of Human Rights,” a court press release states. 

The court also refuted the applicants’ claims that their lives may be threatened if they get pregnant in the future due to the Polish law protecting unborn children, citing the existing right to abortion in Polish law in cases where the mother’s life is considered at risk. 

The legal challenge, backed by many pro-abortion lobby groups, was aimed at taking down a 2020 ruling by a Polish constitutional court that made eugenic abortion illegal in the country. 

READ: Poland bans eugenic abortion, possibly saving over 1K babies per year 

The pro-life advocacy group European Centre for Law & Justice (ECLJ) said in a statement that the organization “is delighted with this decision and notes with satisfaction that the Court agrees with the arguments we offered in our written observations.” 

“This decision is all the more remarkable given the considerable pressure exerted on the Court – and even within it – by the abortion lobbyists.” 

According to the ECLJ, “the case was engineered by the  Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA) and received massive support from global abortion lobbyists.” 

International lobby groups included Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Health, and the International Commission of Jurists, among others. 

READ: Human Rights Watch director trashes Poland, Hungary at WEF for championing family values 

“While this decision is a defeat for the abortion lobbyists, it is not a definitive victory for those who defend respect for the lives of disabled people,” ECLJ warned. “In fact, we should not delude ourselves. It is possible – and even probable – the Court will continue to advance a pro-abortion mindset.” 

ECLJ stressed that the “most dangerous case on this theme is yet to come,” citing a case that could be decided shortly concerning a Polish woman who claims that she has been subjected to torture and invasion of privacy for having to travel to the Netherlands to abort her unborn child diagnosed with Down syndrome. 

“Strangely enough, these major human rights NGOs do not ask themselves whether aborting a child at seven months of pregnancy because of Down’s syndrome is not, in fact, the actual violation of human rights,” ECLJ observed. 

READ: Pro-life Polish gov’t prevails in lawsuit brought by woman who failed to obtain abortion 

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