Goodness knows what Sarah Ewart must feel today. To have told publicly and repeatedly the heart-rending story of her own abortion in order to push for a change in Northern Ireland’s abortion laws, only to be told at the final hurdle that her partners in her campaign had no standing to support her case. That she may have won had she taken the case alone. She may well feel alone, just as so many women are when they travel from Northern Ireland to England and Wales for terminations.

A technicality may seem like the worst reason to lose but today’s supreme court judgment on Northern Ireland’s archaic abortion laws is still a victory and another tool in the arsenal of campaigners. It should not, however, take another victim coming forward to tell her story, or take another court case, for change to come. Politicians must act.

Q&A What is the law on abortion in Northern Ireland? Show Hide The 1967 Abortion Act which liberalised the law in England, Scotland and Wales never extended to Northern Ireland. The region permitted abortion only if a woman’s life was at risk or if there was a risk of permanent and serious damage to her mental or physical health. The story of Sarah Ewart, who travelled to England for an abortion after being told her baby would not survive outside the womb, galvanised change. The legislation brought in by Westminster, which takes effect on Tuesday, decriminalises abortion. After consultations, the UK government will have to put in place regulations for abortion services by next April; until then, women will be offered free transport and accommodation to access abortion services in England. In England, Scotland and Wales, the limit on abortions except in cases of fatal foetal abnormality or risk to life is 24 weeks. But anti-abortion campaigners in Northern Ireland claim that the change could mean abortion up to 28 weeks.

The supreme court judgment found that while the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission did not have the legal standing to bring the case, its reasoning was correct: Northern Ireland’s restrictions on abortion in the cases of sexual crime or fatal foetal abnormality violate article 8 (right to private and family life) of the European convention on human rights.

In stating clearly that the laws governing abortion in Northern Ireland are in breach of human rights, the court has leveraged more pressure on politicians to act. With Stormont lying stagnant, however, now is the time for Westminster MPs to legislate.

On Tuesday, parliament held an emergency debate on repealing sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act (1861), the 19th-century law still governing abortion in Northern Ireland. There was widespread support on both sides of the house for both the debate and for a relaxation of the restrictions on abortion in Northern Ireland, while contributions from Northern Irish MPs ran like a feedback loop. This is a devolved matter, they said, and only Northern Ireland can tell Northern Ireland what to do. Many of their Conservative colleagues, including the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, were quick to join the devolution refrain, as their slim government majority still rests on the Democratic Unionist party and its insistence on continuing to oppress half of Northern Ireland’s citizens. More, actually, when taking into account its refusal to legislate for equal marriage as well as abortion rights.

Play Video 1:55 MP Heidi Allen talks about her abortion in powerful Commons speech – video

But human rights are not a devolved issue. MPs need to come to terms with this, as it is central to understanding why it is their responsibility and not down to politicians in Belfast. International human rights law makes it quite clear that it is the responsibility of the state party to the convention – the United Kingdom – to uphold and protect human rights within its jurisdiction. This includes the convention for the elimination of discrimination against women, whose committee also found that Northern Ireland’s abortion restrictions are in contravention of that same convention. And the supreme court made quite clear today that abortion law in Northern Ireland breaches human rights. Therefore, it is the duty of Westminster to act if Stormont will not – or cannot.

Moreover, the Offences Against the Person Act (1861), when it was initially passed, applied to the entire UK (and Ireland). The 1967 Abortion Act merely provides defences against being prosecuted for having an abortion, under certain circumstances and still requiring the assent of two doctors. Rather than an extension of this act, campaigners want the decriminalisation of abortion across the UK, devolution or no.

Quick guide Access to abortion across the UK Show Hide How does access to abortion vary across the UK? The 1967 Abortion Act legalised terminations in England, Wales and Scotland. It permits abortion for non-medical reasons up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and with the permission of two doctors. Abortion law was devolved to Holyrood as part of the Scotland Act 2016. The SNP has reaffirmed its commitment to ​current ​legal protections and to maintaining time limits in line with the rest of the UK. The 1967 ​​act does not extend to Northern Ireland. Abortion is legal in Northern Ireland only when the pregnancy poses a direct threat to the mother’s life. ​​An ​​amendment by the Labour MP Stella Creasy to allow Northern Irish women access to NHS-funded abortions in England was passed by Westminster in 2017. The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed that regulations allowing Scottish health boards to provide abortion services to women from Northern Ireland would come into force at the beginning of November of that year. In July 2019, the UK parliament in Westminster voted to harmonise the laws on abortion and same-sex marriage across the whole of the UK if the Northern Ireland Assembly had not been restored by 21 October. On 3 October 2019, the high court in Belfast ruled that Northern Ireland’s strict abortion law breaches the UK’s human rights commitments.

Devolution is not a valid reason for the denial of human rights for people who may become pregnant. It is not an excuse for oppression. It is not a cloak of invisibility to pull over our eyes when a small number of our elected representatives happen to be propping up an already cruel Tory government and don’t wish for the world to see the harm they are perpetuating in Northern Ireland.

The UK supreme court abortion ruling offers another fragment of hope | Rebecca Schiller Read more

Why wait for devolution, when it is not a valid defence anyway? Why make more women leave their homes and their people to access healthcare, free or not? Why force us to continue to tell our stories publicly (as MPs Heidi Allen and Jess Phillips did on Tuesday, joining the chorus of hundreds who did so during Ireland’s repeal campaign) in order to win our rights?

Like it or not, Westminster is the guarantor of human rights in the UK and it is incumbent upon MPs to translate Tuesday’s words into tomorrow’s actions and to finally uphold the human rights of women in Northern Ireland and across the UK by decriminalising abortion.

• Elizabeth Nelson is an activist with the Belfast Feminist Network