Judgment concerning Spain
In the case of C.P. v. Spain, the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to respect for private and family life.
The case concerned a woman’s compulsory admission to hospital to give birth pursuant to a judicial order, despite her wish to give birth at home, owing to a risk of foetal hypoxia and intrauterine foetal death.
The applicant had become pregnant in 2018 and had decided to give birth at home. In April 2019, when she was 42 weeks and two days pregnant, she attended a hospital check-up, during which a risk to both her and to her unborn child was identified. Following an urgent application by the hospital, a duty court ordered the applicant’s compulsory admission for labour to be induced if necessary.
The Court noted that the legal basis for the order had been extensively examined by the national courts. The Constitutional Court had found that, despite there being no specific legal provision for ordering compulsory admission to hospital for a birth classified as posing a risk to the life of the foetus, the legal framework relied on by the duty court had been reasonable and sufficient. The Constitutional Court had not reached that conclusion in an arbitrary or manifestly unforeseeable way, and that generally the national courts had interpreted and applied the law in an acceptable manner.