Dec 2, 2022
By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent
A permanent abortion service is now being commissioned in Northern Ireland, the government has announced.
The move comes three years after MPs voted to change Northern Ireland's abortion laws while devolution was suspended. Setting up full services has been held up due to political deadlock.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-63833719
Nov 8, 2022
By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent
A challenge to the government's legal authority to establish abortion services in Northern Ireland is under way in the Court of Appeal.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Spuc) argues it should be for Stormont politicians to decide on the issue.
In February, the High Court rejected its challenge, upholding steps taken by former NI Secretary Brandon Lewis.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-63556861
Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is commissioning state-funded abortion services across Northern Ireland, after the region fails to provide support for women
October 25, 2022
The U.K. parliament decriminalised abortion in Northern Ireland in 2019, and now in 2022, they have begun funding these procedures for women and girls.
This move demonstrates how the Democratic Unionists have lost a key political standpoint topic in local government, where the support for abortion rights defies many of the Protestant evangelical beliefs of Northern Ireland, which formerly kept abortion illegal.
Continued: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/abortion-nothern-ireland-uk-government-law/146465/
by Akshata KAPOOR, AFP
July 4, 2022
Campaigners in Northern Ireland are closely watching US moves to restrict abortion, particularly concerns that women will now have to travel across states for terminations.
Abortion was only decriminalised in the British province in 2019 — 42 years after terminations were made legal up to 24 weeks in most circumstances in the rest of the UK.
Continued: https://www.macaubusiness.com/funding-and-politics-hit-n-ireland-abortion-services/
BY KRISTEN CHICK/BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
JUNE 30, 2022
When Katie Boyd decided to have an abortion in November, she thought the process would be smooth. She had celebrated when abortion was decriminalized in Northern Ireland two years earlier, in October 2019, and two years on, it seemed logical that abortion care would now be readily available.
Boyd, 40, called a hotline intended to connect those seeking abortion with care, and was told she’d receive a call within five days from a clinic that could provide an early medication abortion. But five days went by with no call. Her follow-up calls begging for direct contact information for the clinic got her nowhere. As the days turned into weeks, Boyd began to panic.
Continued: https://time.com/6192022/northern-ireland-abortion-access/
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, access to second-trimester abortions still depends on a damaging postcode lottery
Rachel Connolly
Wed 22 Jun 2022
When a draft supreme court decision was leaked in May showing that judges intended to overturn Roe v Wade, many in the UK reacted with outrage. Rightly so: such a law change would leave abortion rules up to individual states. Rights groups estimate that abortion could become illegal in about half the states if this is successful. Americans would be forced to travel to states where it was still legal, or order costly abortion medicine online, risking severe legal consequences by doing so. Overturning Roe v Wade would probably also inspire anti-choice campaign groups to pursue legal action elsewhere in the world.
Northern Irish executive has not commissioned any services since terminations became legal in 2019
Alexandra Topping, The Guardian
Thu 24 Mar 2022
The UK government is taking legal steps to override the Northern Ireland executive and directly instruct the nation’s health trusts to provide abortion services, saying it will “take the necessary powers” to directly commission services if urgent progress is not made.
The secretary for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, set out the UK government’s legislative options in strong language on Thursday, after it became “increasingly clear” that the Northern Ireland Department of Health (NI DoH) will miss the end of March deadline to fully commission abortion services in the country.
Anti-abortion group claimed only elected representatives in North should decide on issue
Tue, Feb 8, 2022,
Alan Erwin
The Northern Ireland secretary has the legal authority to direct the establishment of abortion services in the region, a judge as ruled at Belfast High Court.
Mr Justice Colton rejected a challenge by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) to Brandon Lewis’ powers to impose a deadline on Stormont for putting in place a centralised system.
By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent
Dec 14, 2021
A DUP bill to prevent abortions in Northern Ireland in cases of non-fatal disabilities has effectively fallen after a tight vote at Stormont.
Assembly members (MLAs) voted by 45 to 42 to reject the principles of the bill after its consideration stage debate.
Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-59660274
DUP and Ulster Unionist opposition to 2019 legislation is ‘shameful and disgraceful’, says Michelle O’Neill
Lisa O'Carroll
Thu 28 Oct 2021
Sinn Féin has welcomed a demand by the British government for progress on the introduction of abortion services in Northern Ireland, as the party denounced Democratic Unionist opposition to the provisions as “shameful and disgraceful”.
Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, accused the DUP and the Ulster Unionist party of trying to reverse legislation imposed by Westminster in 2019, which provided for terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.
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