Europe's top rights court Thursday ruled that Poland had interfered with the private life of a woman who had an abortion abroad because she was unsure it was legal at home.

In Poland, ending a pregnancy is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger.

The woman, born in 1981, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights over having to travel to a private clinic in the Netherlands in November 2020 to abort a foetus that had Down's Syndrome.

A 1993 Polish law used to allow abortion if a prenatal test showed a foetal defect.

But the Polish Constitutional Court in October 2020 found that law to be unconstitutional.

The ruling, which prompted widespread protests, was only published in late January 2021.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled that the

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