Nearly 60% of people in Northern Ireland believe abortion in the province should be decriminalised, a new survey has found. When asked whether abortion should be permitted for victims of rape, and in cases where the foetus cannot survive outside the womb, three-quarters of those polled agreed.



Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where abortion is illegal, except in the limited circumstances where continuing a pregnancy would put the mother’s life in direct danger. The 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act, which makes abortion a criminal offence, is punishable by a life sentence in prison.

Attempts by individual members of the Northern Ireland assembly to introduce limited abortion reform in the Stormont parliament have been met by opposition from the biggest party, the Democratic Unionists, as well as members of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party.

The public attitudes survey was conducted last month by local pollsters Millward Brown on behalf of Amnesty International, which backs abortion reform in Northern Ireland. The polling of 1,000 adults, carried out in September, found:

• 72% of people think abortion should be available if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest; only 15% are opposed.

• 67% of people think abortion should be available in cases of fatal foetal abnormality; just 17% are opposed.



• 58% of people think abortion should be decriminalised so that there would be no criminal penalty for women who have abortions in Northern Ireland; 22% are opposed to this change.



• 59% of people think abortion should be decriminalised so there would be no criminal penalty for doctors and medical staff who assist women to have abortions in Northern Ireland; 21% are opposed to this change.



• 68% of people think the fact that in most cases abortion is classified as a crime in Northern Ireland adds to the distress of women seeking an abortion; 14% disagree.



• 75% of people think the fact that women from Northern Ireland who are seeking a lawful abortion must travel to Britain adds to their distress; 11% disagree.

Adrianne Peltz, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland campaigner, said the findings reflected how the people were ahead of politicians in terms of liberalising abortion laws.

“These poll findings demonstrate an overwhelming demand for change to Northern Ireland’s draconian abortion laws,” she said. “This is not a small margin of support for women’s access to abortion – it’s a definitive landslide. Northern Ireland has changed.

“Not only do a huge majority of people in Northern Ireland want to see abortion made available to women and girls in the tragic circumstances of rape, incest or fatal foetal diagnosis, but they also want to see abortion decriminalised for all women. It’s time for these outdated laws to be brought into the 21st century.

“Decisions about women’s bodies should be made by women themselves, never by politicians, who should be aware that voters from all parties – including those who have previously blocked change – want to see a radical overhaul of these inhumane laws.”

Last November, Northern Ireland’s high court ruled that the region’s restrictive abortion laws breached the European convention on human rights in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and where the pregnancy resulted from sexual assault. The Northern Ireland executive has appealed against the judgment and a decision from the court of appeal is pending.

In April this year, a 21-year-old Northern Irish woman was given a three-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of taking abortion pills to end her pregnancy. The court was told that the woman, aged 19 at the time of the offence, could not afford to travel to England to have a lawful abortion.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International activists will hand over a petition of more than 45,000 names to the Northern Ireland executive at Stormont calling for a loosening of anti-abortion laws in the region.