MPs have called for Westminster to take charge of Northern Ireland's abortion laws - and to also change UK termination rules.

Cross-party politicians said the fact there has been no Northern Ireland executive since January 2017 means the matter should be handed over to Westminster.

And some called for an amendment to the domestic violence bill to ensure abortions are legal throughout the UK, without having to go through Stormont.

They said the rest of the UK's abortion laws should be altered to stop the "degrading" treatment of women.

However Democratic Unionist Party MPs insisted the matter was for Stormont and a decision by Westminster would be in contradiction to their constituents' wishes.


Some Tory MPs joined them in saying repealing the law could eliminate certain safeguards and allow "abortion on demand throughout pregnancy".

Image: Conservative MP Heidi Allen revealed she had an abortion

Labour MP Stella Creasy headed up the emergency debate on Tuesday, granted the night before, after the Republic of Ireland voted to repeal laws banning abortion.

She called for two sections of Northern Ireland's abortion law to be repealed.

Articles 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861 make it a crime for a pregnant woman in Northern Ireland to have an abortion.

Stella Creasy told MPs: "Stopping the provision of abortions does not stop abortions happening.

"It simply increases the risk of that woman either having to make that degrading and lonely journey to another country, or risking buying those pills online which come with other problems.

"Indeed the possibility of prosecution if something goes wrong and she seeks medical help."

MP slams trolls in abortion debate

Dr Sarah Wollaston, chair of the Health Select Committee, said abortion laws in Northern Ireland need to "shift to a medical model" from a criminal one.

She urged ministers to bring forward the UK domestic violence bill currently going through Parliament and to include an amendment to make this happen.

"We know that a cross-party amendment will be brought so this is the time," she said.

Tory MP Heidi Allen became emotional as she revealed she had an abortion.

The South Cambridgeshire MP said: "I was ill when I made the incredibly hard decision to have a termination: I was having seizures every day, I wasn't even able to control my own body, let alone care for a new life."

Speaking after her, the DUP's Sammy Wilson, claimed 100,000 people are alive in Northern Ireland due to the Abortion Act 1967 not being introduced.

:: UK abortion laws aren't as simple as you'd think

Image: The DUP's Sammy Wilson said 100,000 people are alive thanks to Northern Ireland not having the same abortion laws as the UK

He was heckled as he said: "We have people today in Northern Ireland who are rearing families, who are contributing to society, who are building their businesses, who are working in our factories, who are sitting in our schools, who otherwise, if we had had the legislation which exists here in the rest of the United Kingdom, would have been discarded and put in a bin before they were ever born."

Labour MP Jess Phillips, who has previously said she had an abortion, read out stories of Northern Irish women who have had abortions, with many spending thousands of pounds and telling of their humiliation.

She also told how she hired a car in Birmingham recently where the last satnav journey was to the Calthorpe Clinic where she had her abortion a decade before.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said she personally backs abortion reform, but insisted the Northern Ireland Assembly must be resorted to consider the issue to avoid disenfranchising 1.8 million people.

However, if abortion did come before the House of Commons she said a free vote would take place, as it is a "matter of conscience".

Ms Creasy called on ministers to implement change in "at most 150 days".