Abortion in Ulster goes to top court

QC says law ‘inhuman & degrading’

NORTHERN Ireland’s strict abortion law criminalises “exceptionally vulnerable” women and girls and subjects them to “inhuman and degrading” treatment, the UK’S highest court heard yesterday.

A QC told a panel of Supreme Court justices in London human rights were being breached, with those affected being forced to go through “physical and mental torture”.

Nathalie Lieven, who represents the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, is asking the court to rule a prohibition on abortions where a pregnancy arises from rape or incest, or “involves a serious foetal abnormality”, is unlawful.

At the start of a three-day hearing, she argued existing criminal law on termination of pregnancy discriminates against females on the grounds of sex and also amounted to an “unjustified” breach of their personal right to autonomy.

Ms Lieven told Supreme Court president Lady Hale, deputy president Lord Mance and five other justices that victims of serious sexual crime who have to carry a pregnancy to term were being forced to live with the consequences of that crime for the rest of their lives.

The QC said: “In the case of pregnancies involving a serious foetal abnormality, they are carrying a foetus with a serious, and often fatal, abnormality to term, knowing it may not survive at all, or for long – or if it does survive it will be left with serious disabilities.

“In the case of a fatal foetal abnormality, they must carry to term a foetus that, by definition, cannot survive independently and may, by the time of delivery, be dead.

“The potential to travel elsewhere in the UK for an abortion cannot be treated as a get out clause for the law in Northern Ireland.”

Unlike other parts of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.

Terminations are illegal except where a woman’s life is at risk or there is a permanent or serious danger to her mental or physical health.

Anyone who unlawfully carries out an abortion could be jailed for life.

The commission argues the current law’s effect on women is incompatible with rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Stormont Executive’s senior legal adviser, Attorney General John Larkin QC, with the Justice Department, argue the commission does not have legal power to bring the case and it has failed to identify an unlawful act.

Submissions will be made by a number of bodies – including seven of the UK’S leading reproductive rights organisations, Humanists UK, Bishops Of The Roman Catholic Dioceses In Northern Ireland and the Society For The Protection Of Unborn Children.