Out of sync: Abortion in the North
A House of Commons vote this week on a bill that aims to lift the total ban on abortion in the North will have encouraged, but probably not surprised, campaigners who want to see the province’s Victorian-era prohibition abolished. The bill, supported by four Conservative government ministers, was backed by 208 MPs and opposed by 123.
The draft legislation, though, will gather dust on a shelf. The UK government will not find the time for it to progress, it would be opposed by the Democratic Unionists MPs on whom Theresa May depends for her fragile majority in the Commons and, anyway, abortion in the North is strictly a devolved matter for Stormont, which remains in limbo.
But the vote at Westminster does signal perhaps the start of a change — helped by this country’s decision on abortion — in Britain’s perception of Northern Ireland, along with an illustration of just how much the North is unaligned, not only with its southern neighbour, but also other parts of the UK.
