The Government was ordered to withdraw guidance for health professionals on abortion in Northern Ireland after a High Court Judge ruled it was potentially misleading.
Lord Justice Girvan found that, while the guidance on when termination was lawful - which was issued to doctors earlier this year - was correct on a number of matters, it was misleading in two respects, namely counselling and conscientious objection.
But, he stopped short of quashing the document issued by the Department of Health.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was seeking a declaration that the decision to publish the advice to health professionals was unlawful.
The Department of Health's legal representatives rejected allegations it had failed to make clear that abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland apart from in the most exceptional circumstances.
It was also stressed that the document was for health workers rather than the general public.
But Lord Justice Girvan held that the section in the guidance on counselling needs to be reconsidered because it is unclear and could lead to the adoption of potentially unlawful procedures.
He posed a number of questions, such as whether the giving of advice on the availability of abortion services in England and Wales might constitute an offence in Northern Ireland, or whether the provision of counselling to a woman who has decided to go to Great Britain would constitute an offence.
Lord Justice Girvan also ordered that the advice on conscientious objection should be reconsidered.
Lord Justice Girvan said: "An order directing that the guidance be withdrawn must be the appropriate relief in the circumstances where it has been found to be misleading."
He also awarded costs to the pro-life organisation.
'Ambiguous'
The ruling left pro-life campaigners jubilant, but caused dismayed health professionals to claim it had set them back by years.
"It is clear that the judge believed the guidance was ambiguous and improper in its form and needed to be withdrawn," pro-life campaigner Liam Gibson told UTV.
"One of those grounds was on the actual advice being given to medical professionals who did not want to participate in abortion"
"The guidance said that no doctor could be forced to perform an abortion but they had to facilitate them, clearly that is an unlawful proposition," he added.
But Audrey Simpson, director of the Family Planning Association, claimed they had been set back to 2001 when legal moves to obtain guidance was first launched.
"Eight years on and we are still where we started off," she said.
"Because it is all to be withdrawn we are going to have health professionals once again operating in a vacuum.
"Most importantly we don't know what they can and cannot do in Northern Ireland when they are faced with an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. The losers are the health professionals, but most importantly the women."
Her assessment was backed by Breedagh Hughes of the Royal College of Midwives.
"We thought it was very robust guidance, it is imperfect because there are aspects of the law in the rest of the UK that cannot be applied in Northern Ireland, but it was a good place to start," she told UTV.
"It was very much welcomed by health professionals working in this area and now it has been withdrawn we are right back where we were five years ago".
Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland, except in circumstances where the mother's life or mental well being are considered at risk.
© UTV News