Editor's note. This is taken from the blog of John Smeaton, executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Child –SPUC--at http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/2010/12/please-pray-ahead-of-next-thursdays.html

Next Thursday 16 December, the European Court of Human Rights is to hand down its ruling in the case of three women seeking to overturn Ireland's constitutional protection for unborn children. Please pray that the right to life of children continues to be protected in the Republic from conception.

Patrick Buckley, of European Life Network Ireland and of SPUC, told the media today:

"The importance of this case cannot be exaggerated. The Court must acknowledge the right to life of the weakest and most vulnerable members of the human family if it is to retain any credibility in defending the most fundamental right of all human beings.

"While no international treaty has ever recognised access to abortion as a human right, the European Court has in previous cases failed in its obligation to uphold the right to life of children before birth. This case was instigated by the international abortion lobby because it has failed to persuade the people of Ireland to legalise abortion. But success in the European Court would also be a stepping stone towards the creation of an internationally recognised human right to abortion on demand.

"The rule of law must be based on both justice and reason – and creating a right to kill children in the womb is irrational. If you can kill children before birth, why not after birth? Do children acquire the right to life only in the process of birth? That makes the right to life into a spell that is cast by the magic of the midwife. We call upon believers and non-believers alike to reject such mumbo-jumbo. In the days left before the court hands down its ruling, we call upon believers in particular to pray for the court and to pray that the our judges will not permit the killing of innocent unborn children in the name of human rights. We must pray that no matter what the court decides, unborn children who cannot defend themselves will be safe in Ireland."