People call for legalised abortion in Northern Ireland, at Belfast City Hall. (Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

Many people in the UK would not know, or would question why, there is still legislation in place in 2018 that criminalises women in Northern Ireland for seeking an abortion, and women in England and Wales for buying abortion tablets online.

Don’t ask the women of Northern Ireland to beg for their human rights with an abortion law referendum

In March 2017 I was proud to bring forward a Bill to Parliament to repeal sections of the Offences Against the Peoples Act 1861 and address this injustice.

The nearly 160 year old Act that the law is based on is an outdated and archaic law that sets out that even women who have been raped, and then go on to have abortion in Northern Ireland can be imprisoned for life.



For too long Northern Irish women have been left behind by successive governments, forced to travel to the mainland to access abortion.


My Bill was voted on in the Commons in March 2017 and while it was passed, it unfortunately did not change the law.

There is now a debate scheduled in Parliament and a new cross-party campaign to repeal the Offences Against the Persons Act for the whole UK, and a new opportunity to protect and support vulnerable women across the UK.

This would allow all countries within the UK to set the abortion law that they want, as well as removing any aspect that criminalises often vulnerable women. This means that in Northern Ireland they could decide what provisions they wish to make but women would no longer face criminal charges for having an abortion.

Often women seeking abortions are very young or in desperate circumstances, such as those in abusive or coercive relationships, so they use the internet to buy tablets to procure a miscarriage.

I do not believe that any of these women should be criminalised, but need to be supported and able to access good woman-centred healthcare without fear of the criminal law.

However I accept that it not enough to just repeal this piece of antiquated legislation.

Once the Offences Against the Persons Act is repealed it is vital that the 1967 Abortion Act is also revised. The Act only provides certain specified exemptions for when an abortion can be legally performed and has never applied in Northern Ireland.

Being 50 years old it was written at a time when abortion was a surgical procedure. Today most abortions are carried out early and are medical abortions using tablets.

The law needs to be revised to reflect this change in healthcare practice and I hope yesterday’s debate will give the Government the opportunity to put on record their commitment to protect women and remove the threat of the criminal law from women, as well as to give each country in the UK the opportunity to set out the abortion laws that meet the healthcare needs of women.

There is cross-party support for these changes and currently the BMA, The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists all support decriminalisation.

Government support is the only thing standing in the way of allowing women in Northern Ireland to have the same rights as women in the rest of the UK.



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