Tory MPs won't be ordered to oppose Northern Ireland abortion shake-up, minister confirms
4 min read
Conservative MPs will not be whipped to vote down any future bid to overhaul Northern Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws, ministers have confirmed.
Calls for reform of the rules have been growing since voters in the Republic of Ireland ditched restrictions on abortion in a landmark referendum this month.
Northern Ireland is currently without its own ministers following the collapse of power-sharing there 18 months ago, and MPs from across the House of Commons have been pressing ministers to act to change its laws strictly limiting access to abortion.
They argue the current curbs force hundreds of women to travel to England every year to access help.
Speaking in an emergency debate on the issue secured by Labour backbencher Stella Creasy, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley confirmed that the Government - which relies on the support of Northern Ireland's traditionalist Democratic Unionist Party to get is programme through the Commons - would give MPs a free vote on any future attempt to overhaul abortion laws.
"This is a matter of conscience," she said. "A free vote on this issue in this House would be afforded if the matter of abortion comes before the House again, and the same applies in Northern Ireland."
But the minister, who said she was "personally" in favour of reform, also appeared to rule out any specific government proposal, batting away calls from Ms Creasy to scrap the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act, which makes it illegal for pregnant women in Northern Ireland to get an abortion in most circumstances.
Ms Bradley said: "The Government, like its predecessors, believes that the best forum to debate and resolve these and many other matters is in the locally-elected Northern Ireland assembly.
"So the Government's priority remains to urgently re-establish strong, inclusive, devolved government at the earliest opportunity."
Ms Creasy is expected to make a fresh bid to liberalise the rules governing abortions in Northern Ireland with an amendment to the upcoming Domestic Violence Bill, a move which looks set to win the backing of several senior Conservatives.
Speaking in today's debate, the Labour backbencher said: "Why does it matter to trust women and give them the chance to control their own bodies, not to be forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy? Because it is about freedom."
Raising the setting of the dystopian novel and TV show the Handmaid's Tale, in which women's lives are tightly controlled, Ms Creasy added: "This is not Gilead. And we should not be frightened to speak up for the equal rights of women. Because to do so is to put women's life and liberation at risk."
NI LAWS 'UNACCEPTABLE'
Her call was backed by a string of senior Conservative MPs, with former Tory culture secretary Maria Miller saying it was "wrong that women in Northern Ireland don’t have the same access to abortion as my constituents do".
Former education secretary Justine Greening backed that view, and said there was now a "clear anomaly" between women’s rights in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which was leaving the region an “outlier on women’s rights".
Conservative Health Committee Chair Sarah Wollaston meanwhile said the resounding result in the Republic of Ireland had cast a "stark spotlight" on the situation north of the border.
She added: "It cannot, in my mind, be acceptable that in just six counties of this, our United Kingdom, women are forced to make long lonely journeys across the water or be forced into the hands of the unscrupulous and face criminal prosecutions for making decisions that should be theirs by right."
But the DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson urged MPs not to ignore the elected representatives of Northern Ireland as he made the case against change.
"The subject of abortion incites strong impassioned responses for understandable reasons," he said.
"I take part in this debate with that reality firmly in mind. My party has been, from its very inception, a pro-life party.
"We believe law and policy in Northern Ireland should affirm and uphold the rights of both mothers and unborn children. We have not been alone in Northern Ireland in upholding this stance."
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