UK top court can’t ask for N. Ireland abortion law change
london/belfast — Britain’s Supreme Court expressed the view on Thursday that Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, but added it did not have the powers to make a formal declaration that the law should be changed.
British-ruled Northern Ireland is left as the only part of Britain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslide vote last month that sparked calls for change in the North.
Abortion rights activists called the court’s ruling on the law’s incompatibility a “landmark decision” that would put pressure on the British government to act, while anti-abortion groups emphasised there was no requirement to do so.
Four out of seven Supreme Court justices who considered the issue found that the North’s current law, which bans abortion except when a
This is a landmark decision that I hope will lead to changes that will improve the lives of women in Northern Ireland and the care they receive Breedagh Hughes, Royal College of Midwives Director
mother’s life is at risk, was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, a different four of the seven ruled that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which had initiated legal proceedings to try to liberalise the law, did not have the right to bring the case.
“As such, the court does not have jurisdiction to make a declaration of incompatibility (with human rights law) in this case,” the court said in a summary of the decision.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission had argued that the law should be changed to allow abortions in cases where pregnancies were as a result of rape or incest, or in cases where the fetus had a fatal abnormality.
The Commission welcomed the court’s opinion that the law was incompatible with the European Convention but said it was disappointed in the ruling that it did not have sufficient powers to take the case.
Other campaigners joined the Commission in calling on the British government to act without delay.
“This is a landmark decision that I hope will lead to changes that will improve the lives of women in Northern Ireland and the care they receive. Change on this is needed and needed now,” Breedagh Hughes, Royal College of Midwives Director for Northern Ireland, said in a statement.
A Northern Irish woman gave evidence to the Supreme Court about having to travel abroad for a termination after being told her baby could not survive. —