Ministers accused of inaction over Northern Ireland abortion rights

Ministers must act urgently to address human rights breaches faced by women in Northern Ireland who seek an abortion, according to a damning report from a cross-party committee of MPs.

The women and equalities committee accuses the government of failing to tackle challenges identified by a UN committee on women’s rights last year, which found “systematic violations”.

Abortion is legal in Northern Ireland only in a narrow set of circumstances, which do not include rape or fatal foetal abnormality.

While abortion is a devolved issue, the cross-party assembly at Stormont has been suspended for two years and there are growing calls for the government in Westminster to act.

Pressure for reform has intensified since the Irish Republic legalised abortion after a referendum last year.

Despite a UK government-backed scheme, announced in 2017, that provides funding for women from Northern Ireland to have abortions in England, the committee found that ambiguities remained about the legal situation.

The chief medical officer told MPs he believed it was unclear whether doctors would be fulfilling their legal duties if they made referrals to the scheme.

“The lack of clarity about the current legal situation is creating confusion, fear and inequality,” said the committee’s chair, Maria Miller. “Our report sets out action which the government must take to address this.” In particular, the MPs argue that the director of public prosecutions should clarify the legal situation.

The report from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women highlighted the cases of women who conceived as a result of rape, or whose child was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality.

The Westminster committee travelled to Northern Ireland and heard evidence from a number of witnesses, including Dawn Purvis, the former chief executive of the Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast, which has closed.

She told them about a 12-year-old girl who had become pregnant as a result of rape and had to travel to England for an abortion – accompanied by police who attended in order to seize the “products of conception” for evidence.

The supreme court was forced to drop a case over the legality of abortion law in Northern Ireland in 2018, because the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which brought the complaint, did not have the legal standing to do so.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, told the MPs there was an error in the official explanatory memorandum when the Northern Ireland Act came into force which failed to give the commission the appropriate status.

Bradley told the committee the government was committed to rectifying the discrepancy as soon as possible, but that this would require legislation. The committee said this should happen “as a matter of urgency” and certainly within six months.

Campaigners for abortion rights welcomed the report. Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland campaign manager, Grainne Teggart, said it was “a welcome and urgent intervention that the UK government cannot ignore”.