Court rules on NI Abortion legislation
Northern Ireland's Appeal Court has said abortion reform should be left to the Stormont Assembly.
Last updated 29th Jun 2017
In a judgement today it said the complex moral and religious questions behind the issue should be determined by a legislature rather than a court.
The three judges allowed an appeal against a lower court's ruling that abortion legislation was incompatible with the UK's Human Rights Act obligations.
Unlike other parts of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland, where abortions are illegal except where the life or mental health of the mother is in danger.
Today Lord Justice Gillen said: Abortion is a classic instance of the type of highly controversial issue touching on social, moral and religious policies on which there is no consensus either in Europe or, for that matter, in this jurisdiction.
Such an issue requires Parliament to be allowed a wide margin of judgment.''
Northern Ireland's senior judge, Lord Justice Declan Morgan, invited legal submissions on sending the case to the Supreme Court
After the ruling, Liam Gibson, the development officer for pro-life organisation SPUC in Northern Ireland, said:
“There is no right to abortion. No such right has ever been recognised in any universal international human rights treaty.
“The right to life, however, is the most fundamental of all human rights, without this all other rights are meaningless. This right is shared equally by all human beings regardless of our disabilities or the circumstances of our conception.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognise that children require appropriate legal protection before as well as after birth."
Grainne Teggart, Northern Ireland Campaign Manager for Amnesty International, said:
“Today’s absurd ruling is an insult to women and girls and to everyone across the country who cares about justice. The judges had a chance to put right centuries of human rights abuse but with a flick of the pen they’ve just let down another generation of women and girls in Northern Ireland.
“Stormont has been failing women for too long and must act urgently to reform Northern Ireland’s abortion laws and prioritise bringing legislation into line with international human rights standards, as previously called for by UN committees.
This must include the decriminalisation of abortion. Women must no longer be forced to leave Northern Ireland for healthcare to which they are legally entitled.”
Sarah Ewart, whose first pregnancy was given a fatal foetal diagnosis and had to travel to England to terminate her pregnancy, said:
“This is a dark day for women’s rights in Northern Ireland. Today’s court ruling means that I, and women like me, will continue to be treated as second-class citizens, forced to leave Northern Ireland if we need to have a termination and denied the right to healthcare provided by doctors and midwives who know our situation.
“Northern Ireland’s laws made my situation a living nightmare. I asked politicians for help and they failed to bring about the changes needed, and now the courts have joined them in refusing women their rights. It’s shocking that this should be the case in 2017, but we will continue to fight for women in Northern Ireland to be given access to healthcare like women in the rest of the UK."