Judges: Ulster laws breach human rights

THERESA May is facing renewed pressure to reform abortion laws in Northern Ireland after Supreme Court judges said they were incompatible with human rights legislation.

A majority of the judges said the ban on terminations in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – the right for respect for private and family life.

However, they did not go so far as to make a formal declaration of incompatibility, which could have forced a change in the law. It follows a referendum for a relaxation of strict abortion rules in the Republic of Ireland, prompting calls for Westminster to intervene in Northern Ireland in the absence of a ruling executive.

Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said the ruling was ‘further evidence that we need to change the law and stop failing women’.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: ‘The judgment will now be carefully considered.

‘But we want to see a devolved government restored so that local ... politicians can debate the fundamental changes on abortion.’