Abortion Northern Ireland: UK government to order health chiefs to commission full services across Northern Ireland

Liberalised abortion laws were controversially imposed on NI by Westminster in 2019 while the assembly lay suspended after the resignation of Martin McGuinness.

In February 2016 the Assembly voted not to legalise abortion in case of ‘fatal fetal abnormality’ by 59 votes to 40.

However, despite decriminalisation, the UK Government had yet to establish fully commissioned abortion services in the region. As a result, Amnesty International says that 161 women had to travel to England for abortions in 2020-21.There had been a stalemate over the matter at Stormont with the Department of Health saying it could not make such a contentious move without consensus from the Executive.However today the UK Government said it will commission abortion services for women and girls in Northern Ireland while the Executive lies once again impotent due to the withdrawal of the DUP.The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris MP said today that he is under a statutory obligation to ensure that safe services are available.In the coming weeks, he will meet Chief Executives of Health and Social Care Trusts to ensure these services can be provided. The UK Government has been forced to act three years after the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, as the Northern Ireland Department of Health has not ensured the availability of services became available and have shown no indications that they will act to provide them.The commissioning of abortion services follows the making of Regulations by the previous Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis in May 2022.This provides the UK Government with the same powers as a Northern Ireland Minister for the purposes of ensuring that the recommendations from a United Nations committee on abortion in NI are implemented.The recommendations came from the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Report.The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said: “The UK Government has been clear that the Government would commission abortion services if the Department of Health did not act to provide them.“Three years on from the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, we will be ensuring the commissioning of abortion services by the UK Government. It is unfortunate that we have been forced to commission these services, in what should be a matter for the Department of Health to implement.“However, the Government has been left with no other option, as women and girls of Northern Ireland have been without safe and high quality services, with many having to travel to the rest of the UK to access healthcare to which they are legally entitled. That is unacceptable.“I will be meeting the Chief Executives of Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks to ensure these services can be provided. Ultimately, it remains the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive to fund abortion services in Northern Ireland.“The UK Government will ensure that appropriate funding is available to enable healthcare professionals to take the necessary steps to ensure that essential training and recruitment of staff can progress, and services can be implemented.”