The North's Family Planning Association has secured a judicial review of the medical practices relating to abortion.
Following a High Court hearing in Belfast yesterday, Mr Justice Kerr said the association's argument had "passed the very modest threshold" necessary to grant leave for a judicial review.
Lord Anthony Lester QC, representing the Family Planning Association (FPA), stressed the application was not aimed at achieving a change in the law on abortion.
The 1967 Abortion Act in Britain was never extended to the North where abortion is illegal unless there is a threat to the life of the mother. Terminations may also be carried out if the foetus is not viable.
Lord Lester said the application aimed to obtain an order requiring the North's Minister for Health, Ms Bairbre de Brun, to issue best practice guidelines for the medical profession and advice for women on the services available. "This kind of advice is available in other jurisdictions. One is not asking for something novel," he said.
Mr Nicholas Hanna QC, representing the North's Department of Health, said that due to the "fundamental structural difference" in abortion law between the North and Britain, the Department could only refer people to the law as it stood. "The Minister cannot change the law," he said.
He said it was impossible to predict whether a jury would side with a doctor brought before a court in the North after he had performed an abortion on the basis of any set of Department guidelines. "What possible advantage would that be to the medical profession to be told what they already know," he said.
Ms Audrey Simpson, director of the FPA, said she welcomed the court's recognition that the association's argument needed to be explored.
Representatives of the Catholic Church, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child and Life and Care were yesterday given three weeks to submit arguments on why they should be allowed to participate. Justice Kerr will review the case on September 12th and a two-day hearing is expected later in the year.