Abortion is a tricky issue at the best of times, but when you’ve got 25 countries involved – many of which are Catholic – it gets even more so. Which is precisely why there are currently no EU laws on abortion.

Are foetuses covered by the European Convention of Human Rights? If these women lose, it would tend to imply they are – and so surely abortion should become illegal throughout the EU? If they win, the European Court of Human Rights will essentially be declaring Catholic doctrine to be against human rights – which would itself surely be a breach of the “human right” to freedom of religion?