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European Court Rules Portugal Broke the Law by Blocking Abortion Boat
LifeSiteNews ^ | 2/4/2009 | Hilary White

Posted on 02/05/2009 8:32:44 AM PST by Pyro7480

STRASBOURG, February 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese government broke the law in preventing the Dutch abortion boat from landing when it attempted to enter Portuguese territory in 2004, when abortion was against the law. Abortionist and foundress of the "Women on Waves" project, Rebecca Gomperts, said she is delighted with the finding. "We shall use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe," she said.

In 2004, the abortion ship was denied access to Portuguese ports by politicians and the courts. Portuguese officials ordered two naval vessels out to ensure that it would not enter Portugal's sovereign waters. At that time, Portugal had some of the strongest legal protections for unborn children anywhere in Europe.

The Court unanimously decided that there was a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ruled that in seeking to prevent disorder and protect public health, the Portuguese authorities could have resorted to other means that were less restrictive of "Women on Waves'' human rights. Article 10 is the section of the Convention dealing with "expression".

The Women on Waves organization boasts that the purpose of the project is to have the ship "circumvent domestic abortion laws" by offering abortion drugs free of charge. In 2007, however, a report published by the Times of Malta said that the boat's license restricts abortion activity to countries where a "cooperation agreement has been reached with a regional hospital in the country of whose shores the facility is operating."

In June 1998 a law that decriminalized abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy, proposed by the Portuguese Communist party, was defeated in the country's first national referendum. In 2007, after the election of a socialist government, although a second referendum failed to pass a similar measure, a new law was approved that allows abortion on demand up to the tenth week of pregnancy.

In 2003 the ship was greeted in Poland with a hail of eggs, red paint and shouts condemning the abortionists aboard as "murderers" and "Gestapo". Polish customs officials searched the boat looking for abortion pills which are illegal in Poland.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; portugal; prolife
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More EU authoritarianism...
1 posted on 02/05/2009 8:32:44 AM PST by Pyro7480
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To: Pyro7480

Some ships need to sink.


2 posted on 02/05/2009 8:34:23 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Siobhan; Canticle_of_Deborah; NYer; Salvation; american colleen; Desdemona; StAthanasiustheGreat; ..

Catholic and pro-life ping!


3 posted on 02/05/2009 8:35:28 AM PST by Pyro7480 (This Papist asks everyone to continue to pray the Rosary for our country!)
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To: Pyro7480

Who needs sovereignty? Doesn’t everyone long to be governed by people faraway who speak a different language? No?


4 posted on 02/05/2009 8:38:03 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: Pyro7480
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese government broke the law in preventing...
...Rebecca Gomperts, said she is delighted with the finding. "We shall use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe," she said.

Outside Europe, huh?

I hope that there are knowledegeable people on this thread who can answer a few obvious questions:

Broke what law, specifically?
Whose law is it?
Sovereign countries actually signed away their sovereignty to an administrative body exactly where?
What is the enforcement mechanism of the "court" which issued this decision? Is it a self appointed group of lunatics in Belgium again?

Can the "law" or the applicable agreement be viewed somewhere and, if there are voluntary signatories, are they free to withdraw without cause?

So many questions, so many moonbats celebrating...

5 posted on 02/05/2009 8:41:13 AM PST by Publius6961 (Change is not a plan; Hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Pyro7480
There is something eerily apocalyptic about this whole story.

I mean beyond the fact that a death ship is circulating the globe in search of children to kill and the abortionist and foundress is delighted with the finding.

6 posted on 02/05/2009 8:44:50 AM PST by Never on my watch ( We need people in office who make their reputation by earning money - not spending it.)
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To: Pyro7480

Where are the Somali pirates when you need them?


7 posted on 02/05/2009 8:44:54 AM PST by spoolmak
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To: Pyro7480
The Court unanimously decided that there was a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

You can't get more oxymoronic than that - we need to recognise the killing of innocent, defenseless humans as a human rights issue.

8 posted on 02/05/2009 8:44:54 AM PST by torchthemummy (My apologies if this post retreads on ground already covered!)
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To: Pyro7480

Some country should fire on this murder ship.


9 posted on 02/05/2009 8:55:14 AM PST by Arthur McGowan
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To: Never on my watch
I mean beyond the fact that a death ship is circulating the globe in search of children to kill and the abortionist and foundress is delighted with the finding.

As are most things "international," this subject is a can of worms, subject to claims and assumptions not supported by the facts.
Let's start with the membership of this delusional "world" body. Only members of the 47-member Council of Europe are subject to its jurisdiction. So much for cruising the world for countries to harrass.

Secondly, Members are presumably free to withdraw membership. I have no intention of trying to unravel its rules and contradictions; I have enough trouble (as does Tom Daschle) with the US IRS code...

Anyone masochistic enough to want to understand this group (which does not have an standing army to enforce its findings) can start here:

GOOD LUCK!

10 posted on 02/05/2009 9:05:38 AM PST by Publius6961 (Change is not a plan; Hope is not a strategy.)
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To: Pyro7480
The Court unanimously decided that there was a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court ruled that in seeking to prevent disorder and protect public health, the Portuguese authorities could have resorted to other means that were less restrictive of "Women on Waves'' human rights. Article 10 is the section of the Convention dealing with "expression".

A nice lawyerly way of saying that the rights of the folks on the death ship to "express" themselves, trump Portugal's right to determine which vessels enter its waters. They've used a kind of "free speech" loophole, here. They're effectively saying that Portugal has stymied the supposed rights to "free speech" of the ladies on the death ship.

Ridiculous, really but we know how the game is played by now, don't we?

Let's say I wanted to sail a ship into Dutch or Belgian territorial waters which broadcast the message that homosexual acts were offensive to God. How far would that ship get, I wonder? If it wasn't sunk on sight, I think I'm safe in saying that it would receive zero help from the European Court of Human Rights. In fact, I'm willing to bet that they'd actually prosecute me for hate speech. You see, rights of ....."expression" only extend so far in today's Europe. They're bestowed upon abortionists but not Christians.

I say let the Moslems have at it. Let them overrun this European cess pit and lynch every liberal, abortion-peddling, homosexuality-promoting secular humanist they can find. Most of the remaining Christians will already have been forced into exile by that stage, anyway.

11 posted on 02/05/2009 9:06:29 AM PST by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future"- Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: spoolmak

Now that’s an idea!!


12 posted on 02/05/2009 9:27:54 AM PST by victim soul
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To: Publius6961

I am not trying to understand them and don’t give a hoot about some international organization.

The fact that such a ship exists is enough to send chills down my spine. I will sleep better if the ship sinks with all aboard by natural forces, unnatural force, mechanical failure or mysterious circumstances.

I would qualify my statement to say I hope that the third county nationals (or others that crew the ship and have no idea what evil purpose they are supporting)could be rescued.

FWIW


13 posted on 02/05/2009 10:02:37 AM PST by Never on my watch ( We need people in office who make their reputation by earning money - not spending it.)
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To: marshmallow

My U.S. employer is a fanatic on diversity and rights of gays,etc.But ,I have noticed consistently that Americans holding the traditional views of Christianity do more work and cause less trouble.


14 posted on 02/05/2009 10:13:52 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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To: Pyro7480
Is this when the old metaphor is used?

Loose lips sink ships!

15 posted on 02/05/2009 10:23:45 AM PST by jws3sticks (Hillary can take a very long walk on a very short pier, anytime, and the sooner the better!)
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To: Pyro7480

whatever happened to national soveriegnty?? oh right, national socialism


16 posted on 02/05/2009 11:34:28 AM PST by GeronL (Had the flu. Not well yet.)
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To: Pyro7480
Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection.

Evangelium Vitae



Torpedo Testing

17 posted on 02/05/2009 12:03:52 PM PST by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: Pyro7480
Pinged from Terri Dailies


18 posted on 02/05/2009 12:07:42 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: Pyro7480
I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like the ship was killing whales.
19 posted on 02/05/2009 12:25:53 PM PST by InterestedQuestioner (Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved.)
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To: annalex
I once had a math teacher who was visiting from the Soviet Union. We were discussing conservation over a cup of coffee, and he said that Russia didn't have a problem with Japanese fishing fleets depopulating their waters. He said they had MIGs, and they simply sank the Japanese fishing boats whenever they ventured into Soviet claimed waters. No questions asked, no warnings given.
20 posted on 02/05/2009 12:29:33 PM PST by InterestedQuestioner (Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved.)
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