Only DUP power over May stopping women in North having same rights as everyone else
ONE woman in Northern Ireland has been free to choose whether other women can access safe, legal abortions on home territory. That person is Arlene Foster – and her answer is consistent: No.
Theresa May, as a hostage prime minister, is unlikely to overrule her. She is controlled by Ms Foster’s DUP, which means that rights women are entitled to in Britain are withheld from them in Belfast, Derry and Newry.
Illogical? Unsustainable? Indefensible? Take your pick. But currently women must travel to Britain if they want a legal termination. From 2019, they will be able to cross the Border for one, when legislation is introduced in the Republic – but it still means a journey. Meanwhile, if anyone buys abortion pills online, they risk a visit from the police and a caution, or a trip to the courts and a suspended sentence, judging by recent cases. People have been prosecuted in recent times, including a 19-year-old girl who was reported by her flatmates, while a case is before the courts involving the mother of a 15-year-old girl who gave her daughter abortion tablets.
So, almost a million women are denied ownership over their bodies because of Ms Foster and her party’s stance. Along with other legislators, they have used their power to make abortion all but impossible north of the Border. The law there gives it Europe’s harshest penalty: in theory, life imprisonment can be imposed. Currently, a termination is only permitted if a woman’s life or mental or physical health are at risk – rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality are not grounds.
You might imagine Mrs May, a self-styled feminist, would be aghast at this anomaly on what her party regards as British soil. But the DUP controls her, which dilutes Mrs May’s certainties – support from the 10 DUP MPs keeps her minority Tory government in office.
The DUP’s fervently anti-abortion view is not mainstream, however. Rather, politicians lag behind Northern public opinion. Many people have been galvanised by last week’s seismic abortion vote in the Republic, and protests are happening.
On Thursday, women took abortion pills openly in front of police officers in Belfast, while pills and a mini-robot for distributing them were confiscated by the PSNI. Demonstrators from feminist group Rosa dressed up as characters in Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to highlight their powerlessness. In general, people in the North vote on sectarian rather than social issues, and more than eight in 10 selfidentified as Christian in the 2011 census, with Church leaders having more influence than elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. But on this matter, traditional Orange and Green lines are blurred. Activism is limbering up – Thursday’s protest will be repeated.
Members of Mrs May’s own cabinet have challenged her on abortion reform, while opposition MPs are pressing for it. But the DUP is resistant. After the Republic’s referendum result, Ian Paisley Jr tweeted: “NI should not be bullied into accepting abortion on demand.” He added: “The settled will of the people has been to afford protections to the unborn life and protect the life of the mother.”
But how is it the settled will of the people if they’ve never voted on it? Elements of the political class are in denial.
In recent years, debate has been intense, with socially conservative unionist and nationalist politicians alike opposed to liberalisation. However, opinion polls suggest that referendums on marriage equality (also banned in the North) and abortion rights would be passed, with support crossing religious, age, gender and regional boundaries. Seven in 10 DUP devotees who were polled favoured reform for incest or rape cases.
While a referendum would give politicians some cover, the law could be changed relatively quickly by legislation in the Assembly. Easier said than done, of course, with Stormont silenced for nearly a year-anda-half.
Traditionally, all parties except the Greens were against abortion reform. The DUP leadership is evangelically opposed and the SDLP is also anti-change; but with Sinn Féin it’s a case of watch-this-space because its position is evolving. A handwritten sign held up by Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill at the Dublin Castle count was telling. ‘The North is next’ it read.
Not if the DUP can help it. Party chair Maurice Morrow has warned Mrs May against allowing a free vote to her MPs on any bill to amend current laws, and the Tory government looks determined to hold fast to its DUP deal – even if it means denying human rights to women. Mrs May has been in the DUP’s pocket since 2017, and no sign of suffocation yet.
Rather than admit itself in thrall to a reactionary rump, Mrs May’s government is indulging in political game-playing, claiming abortion rights are a devolved matter. Technically that’s correct but context is crucial. There is no regional parliament in place, and little prospect of Stormont’s resumption in the short to medium term, meaning important issues of domestic policy continue to be parked. Whatever that is, it’s neither democracy nor progress.
The DUP doesn’t need Stormont while it has a veto over decisions made by the British administration. It’ll be ready for powersharing again when the current government collapses, as sooner or later it must.
Meanwhile, with Brexit looming, Northern Ireland grows ever more isolated. Its citizens lack the same rights as people in the Irish
While a referendum would give politicians some cover, the law could be changed quickly by legislation in the Assembly. Easier said than done, of course, with Stormont silenced for nearly a year-and-a-half
Republic, England, Scotland and Wales, not just on abortion but on same-sex marriage. Inevitably, this makes the union less appealing to some.
Mrs May is walking a tightrope, and has much to contend with in light of internal Tory strife over the conditions for withdrawal from the European Union. But the incongruous position of the North’s illiberal abortion laws cannot be ignored indefinitely while she concentrates on her balancing act.
THE DUP is intractable, but elsewhere pressures are mounting on a careworn premier. The United Nations has been clear. The UK “cannot invoke its internal arrangements to justify its failure” to revise laws which discriminate against women, it says.
A Supreme Court judgment on whether the abortion law is compatible with human rights is expected next week. If the challenge, brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, is successful then Westminster will be expected to act.
Should Mrs May give Northern Irish citizens the same rights about pregnancy which women in every other corner of the UK and Ireland now have? Or should principles about personal freedom be sacrificed to party political considerations?
“Uneasy lies a head that wears the crown,” as Shakespeare observed 400 years ago. Some sleepless nights are looming for Mrs May.