A mother known as A and her daughter B from Northern Ireland took their case through UK courts for seven years. A became pregnant at age 15 in distressing circumstances. Abortion was effectively illegal in Northern Ireland at the time in nearly all cases, including those from sexual crime or fatal foetal abnormality.

A and B raised funds to travel to England for the procedure. The delay resulted in a more physically invasive process for A.

They succeeded at the European Court of Human Rights. Their case played a key role in changes to the law. Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019. A new legal framework followed in 2020.

In a separate current case, a Northern Irish teenager known as SV seeks to remove parental responsibility from his father. The father was convicted of rape and indecent assault of his stepdaughters. Allegations exist of abuse against his biological children.

SV challenges a rule that bars applications to sever ties with an abusive father if the parents were married at the child's birth. The same rule applies in England and Wales. Unmarried parents face no such bar. The case joins MZ, an English woman in a similar challenge, at the European Court of Human Rights.