The circumstances surrounding the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland are complicated, difficult to explain, tricky to get a handle on – but today there is no confusion about how pro-choice campaigners and activists feel. Today is a momentous day, one that some weren’t sure they would see in their lifetimes; today, abortion rights have been afforded to Northern Irish women and pregnnat people – and the draconian abortions laws that were some of the most restrictive in the world have been lifted.
To get a proper overview of just how significant today is it is necessary to look back to 1861 Offences Against The Person Act. This piece of Victorian legislation outlawed abortion in the United Kingdom – and is actually still in effect. However, since the 1967 Abortion Act, women in the UK (except in Northern Ireland), have been able to access abortion care so long as specific exemptions for when an abortion can take place are implemented. This has meant that abortion has been legal, if not completely decriminalised. The 1967 Abortion Act was never applied to Northern Ireland, however, and procuring an abortion there has remained a crime. Abortion has been illegal even in cases of rape, incest and with diagnoses of fatal foetal abnormality. Women have been arrested, charged and criminalised for having abortions.
In 2016, in Belfast, a young woman who had used abortion pills she bought online to end a pregnancy was found guilty of procuring her own abortion by using a poison and was handed down a three month jail sentence, suspended for one year.
Earlier this month, the high court in Belfast found that Northern Ireland’s near-blanket abortion ban breached the UK’s human rights commitments. The case had been brought by a woman who was forced to travel to London for an abortion after she was was denied a termination in 2013 despite a scan showing the foetus she was carrying would not survive.
In the Republic of Ireland, abortion was legalised after the Repeal The Eighth campaign and a historic referendum in 2018. This meant that Northern Irish women could travel there for an abortion – but they still faced expense, a traumatic journey and being stigmatised. They still faced being forced to travel – to the Republic of Ireland or to England, Scotland or Wales, away from their homes, their loved ones, their support systems.
Northern Irish politicians have let women, pregnant people and LGBTQ+ people down. They have refused their rights and blocked their freedoms.
Today that changes. At midnight, abortion became legal in Northern Ireland. The first abortions will not be provided in Northern Ireland until next spring but in the meantime, women will be assisted in accessing abortion services in other parts of the UK. The momentous change was not brought about by Northern Irish politicians. Instead, legal abortion – and equal marriage, which also became legal at midnight – has come via MPs in Westminster. In July, a law was passed in Westminster that meant if there was no devolved Northern Irish governemnt sitting at Stormont by 21 October 2019, abortion and equal marriage would be legalised. The devolved government, the Northern Ireland Assembly, has not sit since January 2017 after a bitter row between Sinn Fein and the DUP, the two power-sharing parties.
Yesterday, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other Unionists scrambled to recall the Assembly so that they could block aborton rights – but, without the support of Nationalist parties, they were unsuccessful. The DUP leader Arlene Foster called it a 'shameful day' but as long as the devolved government isn’t sitting in Northern Ireland, Stormont cannot affect the abortion law. The DUP’s anti-choice views would seem to be at odds with the majority of Northern Irish people; in 2018, an Amnesty International poll found that 65% of the Northern Irish public believe having an abortion should not be a crime.
Northern Irish politicians have let women, pregnant people and LGBTQ+ people down. They have refused their rights and blocked their freedoms. It would be sweeter and happier if the changes to abortion and equal marriage legislation had come via Northern Irish politicians who were as compassionate and forward-thinking as the people they are supposed to represent. But even so, this is a moment of celebration: for the campaigners and activists; for Labour MP Stella Creasy who played an instrumental role in making abortion legal in Northern Ireland; for the women who were criminalised or forced to travel. Today is a day of huge change for Northern Ireland – and the people living there.
READ MORE: Stella Creasy – I'm Labelled A 'Hypocrite' For Being Pregnant