F was a 36 year old adult woman who suffered from a disability that left her with the mental capacity of a young child.  She had been a voluntary in-patient at a mental hospital since the age of 14, where she received treatment and enjoyed a great degree of freedom of movement. Although the facility …Read more

The appellant, Mr Borowski, challenged the validity of s 251(4), (5) and (6) of the Canadian Criminal Code on the basis that the provisions contravened the rights of the fetus. He argued these provisions allowed for abortions to occur in circumstances that were too liberal, and, as such, they infringed a fetus’s rights to life, …Read more

Canada Safeway Ltd. maintained a group insurance plan that included weekly benefits for loss of pay due to accident or illness. The plan excluded pregnant women from coverage during a seventeen week period before, during, and after pregnancy. During that period, the plan excluded pregnant women suffering from both pregnancy and non-pregnancy-related afflictions. For part …Read more

On November 5 1986, the Court of First Instance and Preliminary Investigations No. 10 of Malaga ordered the search of a medical clinic where criminal actions (specifically, the administration of abortions) were allegedly taking place. In so doing, information regarding the medical history of Ms. Ximena’s (the appellant) was recorded. On November 21, 1986, the …Read more

The appellant, Mr. Norris, complained against the laws in Ireland which criminalized consensual homosexual acts (the impugned provisions). The applicant was a gay Irish citizen and gay rights advocate who claimed to suffered deep depression and loneliness arising from his inability to express his sexuality. He gave evidence of certain health and other detrimental effects …Read more

Section 251(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada (the Code) permitted abortions to be performed only at accredited hospitals and then with approval from the performing hospital’s therapeutic abortion committee. Drs. Morgentaler, Smoling, and Scott had together established an abortion clinic in Toronto to perform abortions not approved by a therapeutic abortion committee.  Following public …Read more

Respondents, including Pennsylvania physicians, abortion counselors and providers, brought this challenge to provisions of Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act 1982 (the Act). The Act imposed the following conditions on the provision of abortion services in Pennsylvania: 1.     The informed consent provision (§ 3205) required women to be informed of: The name of the physician performing the …Read more

Eve was a mentally disabled young woman suffering from a condition that made it extremely difficult for her to communicate with others. She was not capable of understanding the consequential relationship between intercourse, pregnancy and birth.  Mrs. E, her mother, was concerned that Eve might innocently become pregnant, which would mean that she, an elderly …Read more

This case has been overruled by Lawrence v. Texas. The respondent, Hardwick, alleged that a Georgia state law prohibiting sodomy was unconstitutional. In 1982, the respondent was charged with violating a Georgia statute that prohibited sodomy after committing that act with another individual in the bedroom of the respondent’s home. The District Attorney later dropped …Read more

The Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) issued a memorandum of guidance to local health authorities that stated that, inter alia, “consultations between doctors and patients are confidential,” even for children less than 16. The memorandum noted that while “it would be most unusual,” a doctor could advise the child regarding contraception without parental …Read more

In the 1960s, the Government of Brazil approved plans to permit the development of the Amazon region, as well as the exploitation of its natural resources, despite Constitutional provisions and national legislation guaranteeing indigenous communities in the region full possession of the lands they occupied and the resources found therein. The root of the violation …Read more

The applicant, a father of a mentally handicapped woman, found himself unable to institute criminal proceedings against an individual who had sexually assaulted his daughter due to a gap in the domestic criminal laws of the Netherlands, which required the victim to file the complaint herself. Although the victim was more than sixteen years of …Read more

Chief Bernard Ominayak (the “author”) was the leader and representative of the Lubicon Lake Band (the “Band”), a Cree Indian Band living in the Province of Alberta in Canada. He argued that the State party expropriated Lubicon land for commercial interest despite its recognition that the Band members had the right to continue their traditional …Read more

Tellier-Cohen was employed by the Government of Canada and was not permitted to use her sick leave or annual leave for her absence from work due to her pregnancy and childbirth. She filed a complaint in the Human Rights Tribunal challenging the action of the government on the basis of sex discrimination under sections 7(b) …Read more

The Appellant, H.L., brought this class action suit challenging a Utah law which required a physician to notify, if possible, the parents or guardian of a minor upon whom an abortion was to be performed. H.L. represented a class consisting of unmarried minor women who wished to terminate their “unwanted pregnancies” but were unable to …Read more

The Appellant, an obstetrician gynaecologist, brought suit challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia statute, which required second-trimester abortions to be performed in a licensed hospital. The Appellant instituted these proceedings after he was indicted for unlawfully performing an abortion during the second trimester of a pregnancy outside of a licensed hospital. The Appellant performed an …Read more

During a police search of Applicant Dudgeon’s home on suspicion of drug activity, personal property, including correspondences and diaries describing same-sex sexual activity, was seized. Dudgeon was subsequently taken to a police station and questioned extensively about his sexual life. The prosecutor considered but eventually declined to prosecute Dudgeon under a statute prohibiting “gross indecency” …Read more

The President of the Catholics for Christian Political Action and another filed a claim against the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts claiming they failed to fulfill their obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (the Declaration) and American Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) (the United States has …Read more

The Respondent, McRae, a Medicaid recipient seeking an abortion, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Hyde Amendment’, which prohibited federal reimbursement under the Medicaid system for some abortions which were medically necessary. As established by an amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act in 1965, the Medicaid system …Read more

Applicant, a gay man, brought a complaint before the Commission alleging that laws criminalizing male homosexual conduct in Northern Ireland constituted unjustified interference with his right to respect for his private life (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights) as well as unjustifiable discrimination on sexual grounds and residency grounds (Article 14). Due …Read more

The applicant claimed that English law violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention), after he found out that his wife was pregnant and planned to have a legal abortion without his consent. Specifically, the applicant claimed that England and Wales violated the right to life and the right to liberty and security …Read more

The Appellants challenged the constitutional validity of a Massachusetts law that required, in every instance, that the parents or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion be notified. The joined Appellants were an abortion clinic and a pregnant minor representing the class of unmarried minors in Massachusetts who had adequate capacity to give valid and …Read more

The Respondents, a licensed obstetrician and several non-profit organizations, brought suit claiming that § 5(a) of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1974 (the Act) was unconstitutionally vague. Section 5(a) of the Act required every person who performed or induced an abortion to have made a determination, based on “experience, judgment or professional competence,” that …Read more

Title XIX of the Social Security Act establishes the Medicaid program under which participating States may provide federally funded medical assistance to needy persons. Title XIX requires that state Medicaid plans establish “reasonable standards . . . for determining . . . the extent of medical assistance under the plan which . . . are …Read more

The Respondent, Population Planning Associates (PPA) was a corporation primarily engaged in the mail-order retail sale of nonmedical contraceptive devices. PPA regularly advertised its products in periodicals, and accepted and filled orders by mailing contraceptives to purchasers. The advertisements and order forms did not limit the availability of PPA’s products to persons of any particular …Read more

Petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of regulations contained in the Social Security Act (‘the Act’) of Connecticut which limited Medicaid benefits for first trimester abortions to those that are “medically necessary”. For a benefit to be paid, the regulations required the submission of a written request by the pregnant woman, a physician’s certificate of medical …Read more

The Respondent brought a class action suit alleging constitutional rights violations after her request for a nontherapeutic abortion was refused by a public hospital in St. Louis.  Doe’s inability to obtain an abortion resulted from two factors, a personally motivated policy directive by the Mayor which prohibited the performance of abortions in the city hospitals …Read more

In 1975, the Constitutional Court of Germany struck down a law that decriminalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The applicants claimed that the resulting amendment to the German criminal code, which criminalized abortion (except under certain circumstances) in the first trimester of pregnancy violated Article 8 (right to a private life) of the European Convention on …Read more

Plaintiff Virgil Walker filed suit against Defendant, Clovis H. Pierce, the attending obstetrician at Aiken County Hospital in South Carolina, seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief for a violation of her civil rights under the 1st, 4th, 5th 8th, 9th, 13th, and 14th amendments. Virgil Walker, an African American woman on Medicaid, went to …Read more

Petitioners brought this action against the Attorney General of Missouri, seeking to enjoin enforcement of House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1211 (the Act), which attempted to regulate both the abortion procedure and the circumstances surrounding such procedures. Petitioners claimed the Act violated the right to privacy under the due process clause of the …Read more