Legal fight launched for Northern Ireland abortion rights
The Family Planning Association is mounting a legal fight to try to win Northern Ireland women the same right to an abortion as women in the rest of the UK, it announced today.
If successful it could lead to a change in local law and halt the stressful trek by thousands of women for an abortion in Britain.
In the High Court in Belfast on Thursday the fpaNI will seek leave to apply for a judicial review of the current state of medical practice in relation to the provision of services to women in the province in need of a termination of pregnancy.
Audrey Simpson, director of fpaNI, said they were asking the courts ‘‘to advise the Department of Health, Social Service and Public Safety that it is their duty to ensure that all women in Northern Ireland have equal access to reproductive healthcare services.
‘‘This is a major step, as it is the first time that such an action has been taken.’’
Although the 1967 Abortion Act dies not apply to Northern Ireland, it is accepted by the DHSSPS that abortion is legal in certain circumstances.
But the fpaNI said there was unfortunately a lack of clarity around the circumstances in which an abortion could be carried out and that resulted in ‘‘confusing and inconsistent medical practice’’.
The DHSSPS had confirmed that no departmental guidance on the provision of abortion had been issued, yet statistics revealed there had been over 70 performed in Northern Ireland in 1999.
‘‘The absence of official guidance means that, ultimately, decision making power about who qualifies for an NHS abortion in Northern Ireland is left to the medical profession, who are also victims of this confusion.
‘‘Very little information is available to women themselves,’’ said the fpaNI.
They said that in reality the vast majority of women who decide to terminate a pregnancy were forced to travel to Britain.
Some 40,000 women had crossed the Irish Sea from Northern Ireland in the last 20 years for an abortion in Britain paying up to £900 in travel and medical costs, said the fpaNI.
Chief Executive Anne Weyman said they had decided to take the unique court step ‘‘to ensure that all women in the UK have equal access to appropriate, high quality NHS abortion services.
‘‘It is a gross injustice to the women of Northern Ireland that they are forced to travel for a basic healthcare service which should be theirs by right.’’
