'told you so'

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Nov 03, 2009

Back in September the Irish Catholic bishops encouraged the faithful to vote in favor of the Lisbon Treaty, waving aside pro-lifers' concerns by saying that the new charter of the European Union "does not undermine existing legal protections in Ireland for unborn children." 

Cóir, a group opposed to the Lisbon Treaty, replied that the bishops were answering the wrong question. The problem, Cóir said, lay not in the language of the pact itself, but in the fact that "the treaty will give the EU courts the right to decide on abortion and a great many other social issues in the future."

Today's decision from the European Court of Human Rights doesn't affect Irish law regarding abortion. But it sure does tell us which way the European legal winds are blowing, and it thoroughly vindicates Cóir's argument.