Three women, identified only as "A, B and C", living in Ireland claim the Republic's abortion ban violates the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ireland is a signatory.

Backed by the Irish Family Planning Association and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the three anonymous women say that being forced to travel abroad for abortions endangered their "health and wellbeing".

The case will be heard on Wednesday in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, with Irish Government lawyers arguing that the safeguards of the Human Rights Convention cannot be interpreted as endorsing the right to abortion. They will also insist that, despite the abortion ban, Ireland does supply post-abortion care and counselling.

Abortion was outlawed under an 1861 rule which still sets life imprisonment as an option for women convicted of "unlawfully procuring a miscarriage".

The three women now challenging that law are claiming that being forced to leave Ireland to terminate their pregnancies caused hardship and unnecessary costs and that the pro-life Irish law breached the Human Right Convention which guarantees the "right to respect for private and family life", their "right to life", the "prohibition of discrimination" and "prohibition of torture".

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the charity which provides abortions and contraception in Britain to women travelling from the Republic of Ireland, commented: "Hundreds of women travel each year to BPAS from the Republic of Ireland in order to access safe, legal abortion care.

"This is provided to women in almost every other country as a matter of necessary and responsible law-making.".

BPAS medical director Patricia Lohr said there could never be any "moral justification" for putting barriers between women and medical care, adding: "It's disturbing that the law in Ireland forces women to pay privately for care abroad. This creates weeks of delay before seeing a doctor while women try to borrow or save up money to pay for travel, accommodation and for their abortion.

"As doctors, we're concerned at the needless burden of additional risk caused by treatment delays. You don't have to be medically qualified to understand that the Irish abortion ban risks women's physical health, requires abortions to be performed later than necessary, and creates serious emotional upset for women at an already stressful time."