Judges rule decision on abortion in Northern Ireland is for parliament

An appeal court has ruled abortion law in Northern Ireland should be left to the Stormont Assembly and not judges.

It said the complex moral and religious questions behind the issue were not for balanced and impartial judges to decide.

A lower court had ruled that Northern Ireland’s abortion legislation breached the European Convention on Human Rights by barring the procedure when a foetus has a fatal abnormality or is conceived through rape or incest. That 0 Lord Justice John Gillen: ‘No consensus on the issue’ has now been overturned. Lord Justice John Gillen said: “Abortion is a classic instance of the type of highly controversial issue touching on social, moral and religious policies on which there is no consen- sus either in Europe or, for that matter, in this jurisdiction. Such an issue requires Parliament to be allowed a wide margin of judgment.”

Unlike other parts of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland, where abortions are illegal except where the life or mental health of the mother is in danger.

Anyone who performs an illegal termination could be jailed for life.

Yesterday’s ruling was delivered by three of Northern Ireland’s most senior judges.

The court said the case should now go to the UK Supreme Court.