LONDON/BELFAST (Reuters) – Britain’s Supreme Court expressed the view on Thursday that Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, but added it did not have the powers to make a formal declaration that the law should be changed.

British-ruled Northern Ireland is left as the only part of Britain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslide vote last month that sparked calls for change in the North.

Abortion rights activists called the court’s ruling on the law’s incompatibility a “landmark decision” that would put pressure on the British government to act, while anti-abortion groups emphasized there was no requirement to do so.

Four out of seven Supreme Court justices who considered the issue found that the North’s current law, which bans abortion except when a mother’s life is at risk, was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

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