Fresh pressure on Theresa May after court says Northern Irish abortion laws violate human rights
3 min read
Campaigners have piled pressure on Theresa May after Britain's highest court said abortion laws in Northern Ireland were a violation of human rights.
A majority of judges on the Supreme Court panel concluded that abortion laws in the province were not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights - but it was forced to dismiss the case on technical grounds.
Human rights campaigners launched the legal appeal against Northern Ireland's law banning abortions for women in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormalities.
Labour MP Stella Creasy - who has long campaigned on the issue - said the Government should drop its “disregard for the human rights of women in Northern Ireland”.
The issue came to the fore after voters in the Republic of Ireland opted in a referendum to repeal the law there, which permits a woman an abortion only if her life, physical or mental health are at risk.
Campaigners have been calling on the Government to impose the same change on Stormont, which has not sat for almost 18 months amid a political stalemate in the region.
But the DUP - whose ten MPs prop up the Tory government - are anti-abortion and do not want the laws changed. Minsters have insisted the issue is a devolved matter.
The Supreme Court was unable to uphold the case because it was brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission rather than a victim.
During an Urgent Question in the wake of the ruling, Walthamstow MP Ms Creasy begged the Government to change the law without the need for a rape victim to take the case to open court.
“The women of Northern Ireland deserve better. They deserve control over their bodies,” she said.
“They deserve not to be forced to go to court and talk about these issues in order to get government to listen.
“They deserve the kind of control that [DUP leader] Arlene Foster currently has over this government.”
But Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said decisions about Northern Irish law “should rightly and properly be decided by the people of Northern Ireland and their elected politicians”.
She added: “The Government is carefully considering its full judgment and its implications...
“This is clearly a complex area of law and extremely sensitive subject matter which raises a number of different issues to consider.”
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said following the court’s ruling: "The judgement will now be carefully considered. We want to see a devolved government restored so that locally-elected, democratically-accountable politicians can debate the policy on abortion."
DUP MP Jim Shannon said his party "feels very strongly" about the issue but urged the Government to make clear it was up to the Northern Ireland Assembly to make any changes.
'BLIND EYE'
Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti welcomed the verdict and said women in Northern Ireland “must not have to suffer any longer”.
She added: “The Government cannot ignore this ruling and cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this injustice, which denies women in Northern Ireland their fundamental rights, upheld across the rest of the UK.”
Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, blasted the “archaic and abhorrent” rules in Northern Ireland and said the Government “must act now to enforce its citizens’ human rights”.
“Human rights are not devolved and there is a moral imperative for Westminster to stop these abuses,” she argued.
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