Rally calls on May to ease abortion rules
HUNDREDS of women’s rights activists rallied in Belfast on Monday to put pressure on British Prime Minister Theresa May to reform Northern Ireland’s highly restrictive abortion rules after neighbouring Ireland’s vote to liberalise its laws.
Voters in Ireland last Friday backed the removal of a constitutional abortion ban by two-to-one.
That leaves British- ruled Northern Ireland as the only part of the British Isles with a restrictive abortion regime, and Mrs May on Sunday faced calls from within her Cabinet and the opposition to scrap Northern Ireland’s strict rules.
A spokeswoman for Mrs May said on Sunday changing the rules should only be undertaken by a government in Northern Ireland.
The province, divided between unionists who favour continued British rule and nationalists who want to unify with Ireland, has had no devolved regional government since January last year after a power-sharing agreement collapsed between the two communi- ties’ main parties.
Activists gathered outside Belfast City Hall carrying placards emblazoned with messages such as “I am not a vessel” and “Mind Your Own Uterus”. They said it was Mrs May’s responsibility to act.
Abortion is permitted in Northern Ireland only if a woman’s life is at risk or there is a risk to her mental or physical health that is long-term or permanent. It is not permitted in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality.
Both Northern Ireland’s mainly unionist Protestants and its mainly nationalist Catholics tend to be more socially conservative than elsewhere in Ireland or Britain. The main unionist party, the DUP, opposes liberalising abortion laws, while the main nationalist party, Sinn Fein, backs some changes. DUP lawmakers in London provide votes needed to support Mrs May’s minority government.
It is estimated that around three women travel from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion every day, while others risk prosecution by selfmedicating with abortion pills.
Mrs May tweeted on Sunday to “congratulate the Irish people on their decision” but she made no mention of what the result would mean for Northern Ireland.
The opposition Labour party called on the government to support legislation to extend abortion rights in Northern Ireland because women are being denied fundamental rights.
“This is an injustice. No woman in the UK should be denied access to a safe, legal abortion,” said Dawn Butler, Labour’s shadow minister for women and equalities.
More than 130 members of Britain’s parliament, including lawmakers in the ruling Conservative party, are prepared to back an amendment to a new domestic violence bill to allow abortions in Northern Ireland, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.