Begins: Alliance for Choice (AFC) welcome with relief, the news that Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (SOSNI), Brandon Lewis will direct the Department of Health NI to commission a CEDAW compliant abortion service by March 2022, mandating free, safe and legal access to everyone in NI who needs it.

Naomi Connor commented,

‘Finally, long overdue abortion services can take their place within healthcare in Northern Ireland. We remain hopeful that people will no longer have to endure the degradation of forced travel to England or navigating a precarious and limited service.’

AFC recognise the weight of today’s intervention, but Westminster must honour the SOSNI’s obligation to step in, as the state party responsible for our rights. Stormont’s democratic dysfunction has failed to deliver on the 2019 NI Executive Formation Act, irrespective of the trauma of forced travel and human rights breaches. AFC urges the Department of Health to ensure the commissioned services proceed unimpeded and with urgency. We also welcome his call to the DoH for immediate funding support for interim provision of early medical abortion, which continues to be precarious.

Ms Connor continued

‘Each passing day ignores the real women and pregnant people who need clear pathways to adequate abortion healthcare. Further delays and obstruction to abortion services is never acceptable to the one in three of us who require this type of healthcare.’

Emma Campbell said, ‘Whilst we now breathe a sigh of relief, we remain disappointed that whole communities are failed by their leaders on this issue. We can no longer ignore that almost 2,000 abortion seekers sought treatment in the last year from across our population. This announcement doesn’t ask those who disagree with abortion to change, they still don’t have to have one. Therefore we request respect for those who do and allow them to access healthcare in peace and dignity.’

We are vigilant to the presence of rogue pregnancy clinics and groups intent on harassing women using abortion healthcare facilities. It is therefore critical that the government should act swiftly to ensure that women and pregnant people are free from anti-choice harassment and abuse. We also would like to thank all of the outstanding medical staff in NI and England who continued to provide abortion care to us all despite the difficulties and those stand-out local leaders who have stood by us from across the political spectrum.

Contact:

AFC Co-Convenors,

Emma Campbell 07894063965

Naomi Connor 07505 096576

ENDS

NOTES for EDITORS:

The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 introduced in March 2020 are designed to implement the recommendations contained in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW Report of the inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Report), this includes provision for abortion in cases of severe foetal impairment. These regulations need to be implemented in full so that no pregnant person is forced to travel to England to access basic healthcare.
The Committee assesses the gravity of the violations in NI in light of the suffering experienced by women and girls who carry pregnancies to full term against their will due to the current restrictive legal regime on abortion.
The CEDAW Report can be found here https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22693&LangID=E
Matters relating to health and justice provisions, both of which are within devolved competence, and the incompatibility with CEDAW could have been remedied by the NI Assembly. In the absence of this however under the Good Friday Agreement (Paragraph 33(b) of Strand 1) the Westminster Parliament is to “legislate as necessary” to ensure the UK’s human rights and other international obligations are met for NI.
Primary legislation was consequently passed in Westminster. Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 repealed sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (which criminalised abortions in NI). It also placed the Secretary of State under a legal obligation to ensure that the framework under paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW report are implemented, including a continuous and ongoing duty to make changes to NI law through secondary law Regulations to ensure such implementation.
The Secretary of State consequently introduced The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020. Regulation 7 provides for termination of pregnancy in cases of “Severe fetal impairment or fatal fetal abnormality.” This is consistent with what is required by the CEDAW framework and primary legislation.
Strictly speaking the primary legislation, in repealing the provisions of the 1861 Act, dealt with decriminalisation. However, Regulation 11 introduces an element of re-criminalisation for medical professionals who perform a termination deemed to be outside the terms of the Regulations. This re-criminalisation was not recommended by CEDAW. When medical professionals conduct procedures outside of the legal framework, such issues are usually dealt with administratively or through the application of professional standards, rather than through creating a criminal offence. Re-criminalisation may constitute a chill factor to providing services to which there are entitlements, in particular in a challenge to a precise diagnosis relating to severe impairment or FFA.
In relation the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Article 8 covers the ‘right to respect for private and family life’ and restrictions on the same must be ‘in accordance with the law’. This is the principle of ‘legal certainty’ which has been consistently held by the European Court of Human Rights to apply to abortion services. Put simply this means when a person has a right to an abortion in law there must be a clear way of accessing that service in practice.