Good news today from the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the Portugese government had breached the right to freedom of expression when it refused to allow a vessel of the campaigning group Women on Waves into its waters – (and sent a warship to make sure this dangerous ship of women couldn’t get anywhere near).
The Court considered that in seeking to prevent disorder and protect health, the Portuguese authorities could have resorted to other means that were less restrictive of the applicant associations’ rights, such as seizing the medicines on board. It highlighted the deterrent effect for freedom of expression in general of such a radical act as dispatching a warship.
Women on Waves is in some quarters controversial, because it provides pills for early abortion over the internet for women in countries where abortion is otherwise illegal. All the medical evidence I’ve seen of this says it is nearly as safe as abortion under medical supervision, and a lot better than “traditional” backstreet methods, or obtaining dubious pills from other sources.
There’s recently been complaints about this in Northern Ireland – but of course the answer to that is simple: provide women in Northern Ireland with the same access to abortion as is available to women in the rest of the UK.
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