last week, MPs in Westminster voted resoundingly to bring Northern Ireland’s draconian laws on abortion and equal marriage in line with the rest of the UK. The monumental cross-party amendment on the abortion law, spearheaded by Labour MP and pro-choice movement ally Stella Creasy, compels the UK Government to bring about regulations that would decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland. It passed by 332 to 99.
It’s a huge moment for Northern Irish people like me, who have the right to call themselves both British and Irish, but have not had the same access to vital reproductive care as our counterparts on either side of the Irish Sea. Currently, Northern Ireland enforces some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, worse even than those in the US state of Alabama. Unlike the rest of the UK, the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act is still in effect. Under this outdated law, a person who has an abortion and anyone who aids them can face lifetime imprisonment, even in cases of rape or incest.
The margin for exception is extremely small, only in cases where the mental or physical health of a pregnant woman is at significant risk – just 12 abortions were performed during 2017/18 in Northern Ireland, while 1,053 travelled to the UK in 2018 to access abortions, with unknown numbers choosing to procure safe but illegal abortion pills. Since 2017, Northern Irish women have been able to access abortion in the rest of the UK on the NHS, but at significant financial and emotional cost. In addition, Northern Ireland’s abortion law actively punishes women – a 21-year- old woman was given a suspended sentence in 2016 for using abortion pills, while one woman is still awaiting trial for procuring pills for her then 15-year-old daughter who was in an abusive relationship.
Until last week’s vote, the UK Government had outright refused to act, citing it as a devolved issue that Northern Ireland’s government, Stormont, had to address. The fact is, though, Stormont collapsed in 2017, and Northern Ireland has had no functioning political system in over two and a half years, halting any work on urgent human rights issues. Now, Northern Ireland’s women have full body autonomy in our sights, and it feels almost surreal. Between Brexit chaos and the British Government’s previous hesitation to act, it was hard to be hopeful.
I myself went to a staunchly Catholic school, and have lived in a Democratic Unionist Party stronghold, surrounded by anti-choice sentiment, for much of my younger life. And, while polls have shown Northern Ireland more broadly to be in favour of abortion law reform, our politicians have held steadfastly to constricting women’s reproductive rights. We can’t fully celebrate until the laws are implemented (although I and many others did shed tears of joy last week) because there’s still time for pushback from Northern Ireland’s parties, who could scramble to reform Stormont to halt this progress. But if Stormont doesn’t reform before 21 October, we’ll see our rights propelled into the 21st century; as will same-sex couples, after MPs also voted to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
For too long, Northern Irish women’s bodies have been used as political pawns, and this is one long-fought battle victory we can savour. It should have happened long ago, but finally we have movement towards free, safe, legal, local abortion care for anyone who needs it.
9 Potential Realities Of Americau2019s "Abortion Ban" Laws That Will Horrify You
1 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
2 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Governor Kay Ivey signed into a law, a controversial abortion bill that could punish doctors who perform abortions with life in prison. Under the bill, doctors could face 10 years in prison for even attempting to terminate a pregnancy.
3 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Doctors in the same state who go ahead and complete the termination of a pregnancy, could be facing a life sentence. The act is legislated as a "Class A Felony" – others in the same category include first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape. For context, second degree rape – having sex with a minor or with someone who is incapable of consent due to mental disability or incapacity is a much lesser sentence of no more than 20 years in prison. Sexual abuse and incest is punishable by up to ten years in prison.
4 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
This is often a point at which a woman will not yet realise she is pregnant – especially if she has an irregular cycle or has taken the contraceptive or morning after pill and attributes a missed period to that. The number of weeks a woman is pregnant is calculated from the first day of her last period – though, conception usually takes place around two weeks after that when an egg is released. So for the first two weeks of pregnancy we're not really pregnant at all. Week five is the time that a woman will likely realise her period is late and, consequently, that she is pregnant. This leaves one week, if she is lucky, to procure an abortion.
5 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
The law in Georgia goes one step further than some of the other states that have imposed a six-week time limit on abortions, and considers fetus to be a "natural person", requiring full legal recognition, from the point of conception. Although the intention of the law as it is written, may not to be to punish women who are pregnant, as a worst-case scenario, women could find themselves criminally liable for carrying out their own abortion. Many have pointed out that further difficulties may arise when ascertaining whether a person has miscarried or aborted a pregnancy – sometimes the same drugs used to perform a termination are used during miscarriage to help the process. Laws similar to this have, in the past, led to gravely unjust and horrifying consequences for women. For instance in El Salvador, a country that still bans abortion outright, where women have been wrongly jailed after suffering miscarriages. Three women accused of having abortions and convicted of aggravated homicide were freed just this year, in March, after having served up to 11 years in prison.
6 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Again, this may not be the primary intention of the law, but legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern writes for Slate that, 'A woman who miscarries because of her own conduct – say using drugs while pregnant – would be liable for second degree murder, punishable by 10-30 years imprisonment.'
7 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Again, this is because lawmakers have voted to give foetuses 'full legal recognition' under Georgia law – making the abortion illegal even if it takes place out of state.
8 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
This could even be true of someone who simply drives another person to a clinic to procure a termination.
9 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
There are also currently three abortion clinics in Alabama. In the 1990s there were more than 20.
10 of 10Multiple states in America are signing bills to render abortion illegal at six weeks
Louisiana looks set to follow suit with a similar bill.