N. Ireland – Abortion: Stormont has ‘no duty’ to follow Westminster order

By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent
Oct 4, 2021

Stormont departments have "no duty" to follow a government direction to set up abortion services in NI, the High Court in Belfast has heard.

The remarks were made by John Larkin QC during the start of a second legal challenge over abortion laws.

In July, political disagreement in the executive led the government to impose a deadline to establish services by next March.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58765851

04.10.2021

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

Britain orders Northern Ireland to introduce full abortion services

‘This stalemate leaves me no choice,’ UK Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis tells Belfast leaders.

by SHAWN POGATCHNIK
July 22, 2021

The British government has ordered Northern Ireland’s coalition government to introduce full-fledged abortion services, more than a year after legislation passed in Westminster required this to happen.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis issued the order Thursday directing the U.K. region’s Department of Health and Health Minister Robin Swann to make Northern Ireland compliant with British abortion law.

Continued: https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-orders-northern-ireland-to-introduce-full-abortion-services/

22.07.2021

Featured

News

Brandon Lewis

commissioning abortion services

Democratic Unionist Party

Robin Swann

Stormont

travelling to England

Abortion in NI: Delays to introducing full services ‘deeply troubling’, court hears

By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI Political Reporter
May 26, 2021

Delays in implementing Northern Ireland's abortion laws have been a "deeply troubling exercise in finger-pointing", a court has heard.

Abortion became legal in 2020, following a vote by MPs during the collapse of devolution.

Stormont has since been under pressure to establish a permanent, central abortion service, but this has not happened yet.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-57248241

26.05.2021

commissioning abortion services

David Blundell

NI Human Rights Commission

N. Ireland – Abortion: New powers not taken lightly, says Brandon Lewis

Published March 23, 2021

The decision to introduce new powers compelling Stormont to implement abortion laws has not been taken lightly, Brandon Lewis has said.

The government has published regulations allowing the NI secretary to direct commissioning of central abortion services in NI.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56485487

Northern Ireland’s women won abortion rights but its politicians won’t accept that

After Stormont voted to restrict abortion rights, Westminster is intervening to secure the services women are legally entitled to

Susan McKay
20 Mar 2021

Northern Ireland is no country for young women. Out of 87 members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) at Stormont last week, just 12 voted to allow women the right to choose abortion in line with international human rights standards. These are built into a law smuggled into NI while the institutions in Belfast were collapsed in acrimony in 2019, following an inspiring collective effort by local feminists and the British Labour MP Stella Creasy. Jubilant, proud, relieved and tearful, women stood at Stormont with banners that said, simply, “Decriminalised”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/20/northern-ireland-women-abortion-rights-stormont-westminster

New Northern Ireland abortion rules voted in by MPs must be accepted at Assembly, says minister

New Northern Ireland abortion rules voted in by MPs must be accepted at Assembly, says minister

George Ryan
June 05 2020

Stormont must accept new regulations on abortion made in Westminster despite them being rejected by the Assembly, the Northern Ireland minister has announced.

MPs voted last July to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland if the Stormont Assembly was not up and running by October.

Continued: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/new-northern-ireland-abortion-rules-voted-in-by-mps-must-be-accepted-at-assembly-says-minister-39260793.html

Stormont: Brandon Lewis exceeded powers in introducing abortion regulations

Stormont: Brandon Lewis exceeded powers in introducing abortion regulations
Legal adviser says it is doubtful legislation gives adequate protection to those opposed

April 26, 2020

The Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis exceeded his powers in introducing abortion regulations, Stormont’s chief legal adviser has said.

It is doubtful whether the legislation gives adequate European Convention on Human Rights-based protection to the rights of those opposed on religious or philosophical grounds, attorney general John Larkin QC added.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/stormont-brandon-lewis-exceeded-powers-in-introducing-abortion-regulations-1.4238324

26.04.2020

European Convention on Human Rights

911 doctors, nurses sign letter refusing to cooperate with new abortion law in Northern Ireland

911 doctors, nurses sign letter refusing to cooperate with new abortion law in Northern Ireland

By Louise Bevan
Nov 9, 2019

Since Northern Ireland formally legalized abortion, there has been a backlash from a faction of medical professionals who say they will not assist in the procedure.

Citing a violation of their Catholic beliefs, a number of doctors and nurses have signed a letter of opposition to the Northern Irish Secretary of State Julian Smith and the Secretary for the Department of Health Richard Pengelly.

Continued: https://www.theepochtimes.com/911-doctors-nurses-sign-letter-refusing-to-cooperate-with-new-abortion-law-in-northern-ireland_3128734.html

N. Ireland – How We Won the Right to Choose

How We Won the Right to Choose

By Maev McDaid and Brian Christopher
10.31.2019

Coming hot on the heels of Dublin’s repeal of anti-abortion laws, decriminalization in the North is a decisive victory for Irish feminists. The church and the state are losing their control over our bodies — but we still need to make abortion legal, safe, and free.

October 22 marked a decisive victory in the North of Ireland, as abortion was finally decriminalized. This news will surely have passed many people by — after all, in national as in international media, the North is almost only ever “represented” by the bigots in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). But last week, this stridently anti-choice party was finally overruled by the Westminster parliament. Its move to decriminalize abortion in the North came fifty years after a similar step was taken on the British mainland. Yet this success especially owes to decades of heroic struggles waged by Irish feminists.

continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/northern-ireland-abortion-eighth-amendment

Ireland: this is just the beginning

Ireland: this is just the beginning
Decriminalisation is long overdue. But will much change in practice?

Ella Whelan, Columnist
24th October 2019

Northern Ireland’s government in Stormont has been inactive for over 1,000 days. Sinn Fein and the DUP have been unable to bury the hatchet over a botched environmental policy and age-old rows over cultural practices. With the power-sharing agreement unable to function, the Northern Irish civil service has been left running the country, unable to make any key decisions. As a result, the UK parliament passed a law that instructed the two parties to return to Stormont to kiss and make up or face the prospect of Westminster taking over.

After an embarrassing performance in Stormont on Monday, in which a handful of politicians made a hamfisted show of trying to come back together, at midnight Westminsters’ threats became real and the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 came into force. Most significantly, the law also repealed sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, clearing the way for the decriminalisation of abortion.

Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/24/abortion-in-northern-ireland-this-is-just-the-beginning/