Northern Ireland: the movement to change the law is growing

23 December 2015-7 January 2016

On 23 December, A teenager and her mother who are fighting for women from Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the National Health Service in Great Britain are to have their case heard at the UK’s Supreme Court, in a challenge against a Court of Appeal ruling in July 2015 that went against them.

During the Court of Appeal proceedings, Lord Justice Moore-Bick, Lord Justice Elias and Lord Justice McCombe heard that the case was of considerable importance as an estimated 2,000 women and girls from Northern Ireland – where abortion is illegal apart from in exceptional circumstances – come to England for terminations every year.

The 18-year-old applicant in the case was aged 15 when she made the journey in October 2012 with her mother and was told she had to pay hundreds of pounds for a private termination because she was excluded from free abortion services.

The case was backed by Alliance for Choice, which campaigns to extend legal abortion in Northern Ireland. A date has yet to be fixed for the Supreme Court hearing.

On 5 January 2016, it was reported that medical staff in Northern Ireland are operating in a “climate of fear”, worried about the threat of imprisonment if they offer advice to women seeking an abortion, health care leaders said, because doctors and midwives were so alarmed by punitive draft guidelines, which state that health care workers risk life imprisonment for performing an unlawful abortion… Doctors also feel scared to provide information about clinics in England where women could seek an abortion because they are unsure whether giving even this very limited advice is illegal.

Although the guidelines were subsequently withdrawn, doctors say they have had a “chilling effect”, making staff very reluctant to provide abortions that might previously have been viewed as standard. New guidance has yet to be published.

Doctors who had previously felt able to provide abortions to women who were carrying fetuses with fatal abnormalities in Northern Ireland say they no longer feel able to help those women; instead they advise them to travel to England for a termination.

Hospital doctors, midwives and GPs all said they found it particularly difficult when women who were having a miscarriage after taking abortion pills bought online came to seek their advice, because of pressure to report anyone who has illegally procured an abortion.

Nurses have also spoken of their anxiety about helping women at A&E departments who are panicking after taking abortion pills bought online. Breedagh Hughes, director for Northern Ireland at the Royal College of Midwives, said: “That’s not a good situation to be managing. The midwives are thinking: ‘Oh dear God, do I have to report this woman to the police because she is in the middle of a criminal act here?'” Midwives were encouraged not to ask too many questions. Hughes said she understands how potent the sense of fear of prosecution is among medical staff. In 2008 she was interviewed at a police station after telling a newspaper that over the course of her career she had been present at terminations and was not always sure whether the procedures were lawful or not. “Four hours of questioning was not pleasant,” she said. She was asked by police to supply names both of the patients and of staff she had worked with but refused to comply. The investigation was dropped owing to insufficient evidence…

On 6 January, Prof Fergal Malone, a prominent NI obstetrician-gynaecologist, said some of his patients were having to return the remains of their babies from the UK in shoeboxes or by courier as a result of the ban on terminations in cases of fetal anomaly. This was causing huge added emotional trauma. His hospital wanted to be able to provide all available services for women diagnosed with such a diagnosis. He was struck by how emotionally difficult it was for the women who choose a termination and have to take the added step of travelling to England and called for abortions on this ground to be made legal.