Antigua’s High Court ruled on Wednesday that the legal challenge to the country’s abortion laws will proceed to trial.

The case, led by a group of campaigners including prominent local gynaecologist Dr. Dane Abbott, seeks to overturn Antigua and Barbuda’s long-standing anti-abortion legislation. The campaigners argue that the current law violates a woman’s right to choose.

The court debate centered on a legal technicality. Lawyers for the Attorney General and anti-abortion activists presented their arguments about the repeal of sections 56 and 57 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which criminalises abortion. David Dorsett, representing the AG, argued that the 1861 abortion laws were repealed by the Sexual Offences Act of 1995 and that the case should have instead focused on the 1937 Infant Preservation Act. However, the 1995 Act does not explicitly address abortion, which remains governed under the 1861 legislation.

Sherrie-Ann Bradshaw, representing the co-respondents, argued that while the law is technically still on the books, it needs to be officially repealed. Dorsett contended that the law is already “null, void, and of no effect.”

Justice Jan Drysdale concluded that it is not clear whether the 1861 law is still in force and dismissed a motion to strike out the case. She ordered the Attorney General’s Chambers to pay $1,500 to the abortion rights activists.

The court’s ruling means the case will move forward to trial at a date to be announced. The suit will likely to seek changes that give women legal access to abortion pills and ask for women to have a right to an abortion.

Offences Against the Person Act makes abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Despite this, local doctors reportedly perform illegal abortions using the drug Misoprostol, also known by its brand name Cytotec, which is legally prescribed to induce labor but is also used off-label to terminate pregnancies.