U.K. Supreme Court ruling leaves N. Ireland’s strict abortion law as is

The U.K. Supreme Court ruled Thursday it had no right to decide whether Northern Ireland’s strict policy limiting abortions breached European humanrights laws.

The court ruled that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission didn’t have the legal right to bring the case. However, a majority of the seven judges agreed that the law breached the European Convention of Human Rights in cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormality.

In Nor t hern Ireland, women are only permitted to termi n ate their pregnancy when their life is in danger or the pregnancy runs a serious risk to their mental or physical health. In 2016, more than 700 women traveled from Northern Ireland to England and Wales to get an abortion.

The ruling on a technicality will come as a relief for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, who previously said that the province should decide its own abortion policy. A ruling the other way would’ve risked upset- ting her fragile alliance with the province’s Democratic Unionist Party. Pressure to change the law in the province has increased since the Republic of Ireland voted by a landslide to liberalize abortion laws last month. Many Conservative lawmakers say that the law in Northern Ireland should be brought into line with the rest of the U.K., but DUP leader Arlene Foster is committed to maintaining the province’s strict abortion laws.

May has said that the abortion issue should be decided by Northern Ireland’s devolved government. U.K. lawmakers held an emergency debate on the issue Tuesday.

Northern Ireland hasn’t had a government since a power-sharing agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein collapsed in January 2017 over the DUP leadership’s role in a costly renewable energy initiative.

The human rights commission argued that the province’s abortion laws were incompatible with the ECHR rules, which protect the right to terminate pregnancies in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities, rape and incest.