A Swedish political party has described Ireland’s abortion laws as “medieval” and “terrifying” and will attempt to use the Lisbon treaty to have the procedure recognised as a human right throughout the EU.

Birgitta Ohlsson of the Swedish Liberal party, a member of her country’s coalition government, has launched a group called Make Noise for Free Choice. It plans to obtain the 1m signatures required for its demands to be considered by the European commission under the terms of the “citizens’ initiative” proposed under the new EU treaty.

The campaign, launched last month, aims to have completed its online petition by October next year.

Under the terms of the Lisbon treaty, any proposal which gains 1m signatures from a significant number of EU countries must be considered and debated by the European commission. The number of countries has yet to be finalised.

If successful, the move would focus attention on Ireland’s laws, under which women are not allowed to have an abortion unless there is a risk to the mother’s life.

Ohlsson, who hopes to give women across Europe the right to free abortion, was highly critical of Ireland’s stance. She said her campaign is an effort to encourage countries like Ireland to start a dialogue with a view to putting pressure on national governments.

“EU countries treat this like it’s a health issue so we want to change attitudes towards it and have it recognised as a human right,” she said. “The different European countries need to change their laws to support people. We are going to encourage people in these countries to put pressure on their countries to change the laws.”

To date, just 3,120 people have signed the online petition at makenoiseforfreechoice.eu and Ohlsson concedes that the campaign has yet to gain momentum.

The website says that countries like Ireland, Malta and Poland are denying women their human rights by banning abortion and that the women of Europe can “no longer be ignored”.

“Powerful forces”, the website claims, are “counteracting women’s struggle” for their right to safe abortion.

It adds: “Nowhere in the world should a woman be forced to use a hanger, eat washing powder or see a quack doctor to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, when safe abortion methods are available.”

The Irish government said its independence on abortion was secured by legal guarantees agreed with other EU countries ahead of the second Lisbon referendum in October.

Irish pro-life campaigners reacted angrily this weekend to Ohlsson’s campaign and insisted that it will fail to change Ireland’s laws on abortion.

Patricia Casey, a professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, said: “It’s ironic for a country like Sweden, with such a track record of protecting human rights, that campaigners from there are campaigning for the killing of unborn children. There is certainly a contradiction.”

Irish laws are “progressive” and “recognise all humans at all stages of life”, according to Casey, who said most Irish people will be opposed to the Swedish campaign. She said it was “highly unlikely” that there will be any change in the Irish laws as a result of Ohlsson’s campaign and added: “Since when has it been progressive to allow people to take a life?”

The Swedish movement is backed by European politicians including Baroness Sarah Ludford, a British Liberal Democrat MEP.

“We can’t bury our heads in the sand” when it comes to starting a public discussion,” she said. “I regret the position of women who are unable to get access to safe, legal, free abortion.”

Jenny Sonesson, a founder of the campaign, said: “Countries like Ireland, Malta and Poland have restrictive views on abortion and have forced women to go abroad.”

John O’Reilly of the Irish Pro-Life Campaign, said Irish abortion laws were reinforced by the legal guarantees surrounding the Lisbon treaty, “unless the guarantees mean nothing at all”.

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