Tories push to reform NI abortion laws

THREE Conservative MPs are in Belfast today for a series of meetings to help push forward reform of Northern Ireland’s highly restrictive laws on abortion.

Anna Soubry, Huw Merriman and Nicky Morgan will meet with women, midwives and doctors, as well as local political parties and legal professionals challenging the law through the courts.

They will also hear from people directly impacted by the near-total abortion ban, so they can take their stories and experiences back to Westminster where they will argue for change.

MPs are set to vote on abortion laws in Northern Ireland next month. Labour MP Diana Johnson will introduce a 10-minute rule bill that will seek to decriminalise abortion.

Calls for Northern Ireland’s abortion laws to be reformed have intensified after a referendum in the Republic in May resoundingly backed liberalising legislation south of the border.

Downing Street has previously said abortion law is a devolved issue. However the absence of a power-sharing Assembly at Stormont has placed pressure on Westminster to act.

But Prime Minister Theresa May’s allies in the DUP, on whom she relies for her Commons majority, are staunchly opposed to relaxing abortion laws.

Yesterday, Ms Soubry said women and girls in Northern Ireland “are not second-class citizens and deserve access to free, safe and legal abortion services without having to travel to other parts of the UK”.

She added: “It’s ultimately the people of Northern Ireland who are affected by the restrictive abortion law there, which is Meetings: MPs Anna Soubry (top) and Nicky Morgan why we’re in Belfast to listen first hand to the women, midwives and doctors who find themselves harmed and compromised by the near-total ban on abortion.

“Our government must prioritise their rights and there is now significant support in Westminster for reform. We will continue to push for it to ensure that long and overdue change happens.”

It is estimated that 28 women travel from here to England for terminations every week.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, UUP MLA Doug Beattie and Alliance leader Naomi Long have issued a joint call for the law here to be radically reconsidered.

They stated they “are concerned about the harm being caused to women living under the existing Victorian-era legislation which makes abortion illegal in almost every circumstance”.