The UK’s Supreme Court will rule this week on whether Northern Ireland’s abortion laws should be in line with the rest of the UK.

The Irish Republic’s groundbreaking referendum decision to liberalise the country’s abortion laws has focused attention north of the border where abortion is unlawful except in limited circumstances.

Theresa May, the UK prime minister, has so far said abortion laws in the province should be dealt with by the Northern Ireland Assembly despite pressure from several members of her party to address the issue.

The Supreme Court has been asked to consider if Northern Ireland’s laws breach human rights legislation because they ban abortion in cases of rape, incest or serious foetal anomaly.

If it decides there is a breach of human rights, the justices can make a declaration of incompatibility — an unusual step — which would put pressure on the government to change legislation.

Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP and chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “This would be hugely significant because human rights are not devolved.”

She has called on Mrs May to allow a free vote on a cross-party amendment to the domestic abuse bill to “directly bring Northern Ireland’s abortion laws in line with the rest of UK.”

Recommended Northern Ireland needs a government not another referendum

Any further calls for abortion law reform could prove a fresh headache for the Tories. After last year’s election, Mrs May’s minority government is now reliant on the ten votes of the Democratic Unionist party to provide a working majority to pass crucial Brexit related legislation later this month.

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader in Northern Ireland, on Sunday said the issue deserved “a serious discussion and a serious mature debate” in the devolved administration.

But Stormont has not sat since January 2017 when the power-sharing arrangement between the DUP and Sinn Féin collapsed.

Abortions carried out up to 24 weeks have been legal in England, Wales and Scotland since the 1967 Abortion Act but are unlawful in Northern Ireland unless the mother’s life or health is at stake. In 2015-16 just 16 terminations were performed in Northern Ireland and in 2015 about 833 women from Northern Ireland travelled to England for abortion care.

For a court to make a declaration that a statute is incompatible with human rights is highly unusual. Since the Human Rights Act came into force in 2000, there have been 25 such final declarations and in most cases the government has passed new legislation as a result.

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