Northern Ireland abortion row ‘a test of May’s feminism’

THERESA MAY has been accused of betraying the legacy of women’s rights campaigners by failing to impose abortion law reform on Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister has insisted Ulster’s laws can only be relaxed by the power-sharing government at Stormont, as abortion is a devolved issue.

But with the Northern Ireland Assembly having been suspended for the past 16 months, Mrs May is under pressure to pass laws in Westminster to bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK, following a landslide vote in the Republic of Ireland to liberalise abortion laws.

Baroness Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, said the right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy was a “fundamental human right” for women.

She told the BBC: “I think that Theresa May, really as a self-identifying feminist, needs to say ‘Yes, I unveil statues of suffragists in Parliament Square, but the test of my feminism will be whether I guarantee fundamental human rights for women’.”

Scores of MPS across the Commons have indicated they are prepared to act to rewrite the current legislation.

However, Mrs May is dependent on the support of the DUP for her working majority in Parliament, and the party strongly opposes any such reform.

Downing Street believes any reform in Northern Ireland “is an issue for Northern Ireland”, a source said, adding “it shows one of the important reasons we need a functioning executive”.