Abortion must not be treated like a game of pass the parcel
Ministers are shirking their legal duty to the women of NI
HISTORY shows that many outrages are hidden by the fog of war: the state of turmoil and confusion that inevitably arises during conflict. Likewise, many dire injustices are concealed by the fog of the current pandemic.
One of the most urgent, for women in Northern Ireland, is the scandalous lack of abortion provision. After decades of suffering, endless court battles and failed political interventions, abortion was at last made legal in Northern Ireland in October 2019.
So why, in January 2021, are we going back to court?
Because women with crisis pregnancies are still being denied their rights, still being betrayed, still being ignored and abandoned by their political representatives.
This week, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) launched a landmark legal action against the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Executive, and the Department of Health for their failure to commission safe, accessible abortion services.
Each of them have refused to take responsibility. Les Allamby, head of the NIHRC, said: “We have entered a Kafkaesque world where the NIO claims it is taking all reasonable steps to enable a service, the Department of Health claims it cannot get agreement to commission and fund a service through the NI Executive, and the NI Executive says it is a matter for the Department of Health.”
This is often how politically controversial issues are treated in our part of the world. It’s the same with flags and painted kerbstones — no authority wants to take it on. As Les Allamby points out, “it is a game of ‘pass the parcel’ where the music never stops, except it is not a game but an issue of women’s health and wellbeing.”
Amnesty International believes that the failure of the NI Executive and Department of Health to agree to fund and commission these services breaches the European Convention on Human Rights. Health trusts have been left, in the middle of a pandemic, struggling to fund and resource abortion care themselves.
The fact that any provision exists at all is down to a handful of committed, dedicated and exhausted staff, determined to help women, but too isolated and too few in number to keep the system going. No wonder it is falling apart.
The South Eastern Trust currently has no early medical abortion (EMA) service because a doctor involved in providing it has gone on maternity leave. Between October of last year and early this year, the Northern Trust could not provide any services, and no other trust had the capacity to accept referrals.
Desperate women, unable to access care, must travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion, against all stay-at-home pandemic advice, or seek abortion pills online. Some women have turned to backstreet abortions. Others, in complete despair, have even attempted suicide over the lack of care they need.
As the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has warned, “this harm cannot be overstated”.
Yet Health Minister Robin Swann maintains that commissioning services is a “controversial issue” which must be referred to the Executive. Sorry, Mr Swann. Not good enough. You are under no obligation to seek the approval of the Executive on this matter. Your obligation is to implement the law.
This is not about absurd sectarian issues like flags and kerbstones. This is about real lives, real suffering. You are the minister for health, yet you are presiding over a disaster in women’s healthcare, having washed your hands of responsibility.
Mr Swann has previously stated that he is “pro-life”. Of course, he is perfectly entitled to that view.
What he is not entitled to do is deprive women of their legal rights to safe healthcare, and health professionals of the resources to provide those rights, in perpetuity, on the dubious pretext of waiting for Executive permission.
Should Mr Swann continue to abdicate his duty of care to the women of Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, as secretary of state, must intervene on their behalf. After all, he’s already said how “proud” he is that the UK Government ensured abortion rights in NI. Let’s see that pride in action, at the point of delivery.
At the very minimum, Mr Lewis must ensure that telemedicine services are urgently put in place so that women aren’t forced to resort to potentially unsafe or desperate measures.
We cannot wait until the shroud of fog, caused by the pandemic, eventually lifts.
Indeed, once Covid restrictions are removed, the small number of healthcare staff who are currently able to assist with interim abortion services — due to the reduction of their normal duties — will diminish still further as they return to their pre-pandemic roles.
There’s no time to lose. This is a wrong which must be righted now.