A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has said that the Portuguese government violated the law when it prevented a Dutch abortion boat from landing in its territory in 2004.

Rebecca Gomperts, founder of the “Women on Waves” project, said she was delighted with the ruling and said they would “use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe", reports Lifesitenews.

In 2004, when abortion was illegal in Portugal, the abortion boat was refused access to Portuguese ports by politicians and the courts. Two naval vessels were sent to ensure that the boat did not enter Portuguese waters.

However the ECHR said that the act was a breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which deals with the right of expression. The ECHR ruled that the Portuguese authorities could have used other means which were less restrictive of the rights of Women on Waves.

Women on Waves says it aims to “circumvent domestic abortion laws” by offering abortion drugs for free. However in 2007 a report in the Times of Malta revealed that the boat’s license limits 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”.

Since 2004, the year the incident happened, Portuguese abortion laws have been loosened. In 2007 a socialist government was elected and subsequently passed a law allowing abortion up to the tenth week of pregnancy.

Women on Waves also provoked controversy when it visited Poland in 2003. Their boat was pelted with eggs and red paint and they were condemned as “murderers” and “Gestapo”. According to Lifesitenews, Polish customs officials also searched the boat for abortion pills, which are illegal in Poland.