Government acts to ensure availability of abortion services in Northern Ireland

The UK Government has announced its intention to prepare work on further regulations to ensure abortion services are available for women and girls in Northern Ireland.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis has set out the legislative options being explored in a written ministerial statement.

The Government said it is taking the step as it is becoming “increasingly clear that the Northern Ireland Department of Health will miss the deadline of the end of March to ensure abortion services in Northern Ireland are commissioned in full”.

Abortion laws in Northern Ireland were liberalised in 2019 following legislation passed by Westminster at a time when the powersharing government in the region had collapsed.

However, while individual health trusts have been offering services on an ad-hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services.

The regulations being planned would place a further duty on the department to make abortion services available as soon as is reasonably practicable, and remove the need for Executive Committee approval before services can be commissioned.

The Secretary of State will have the powers to intervene directly following the Assembly election in May if sufficient progress has still not been made.

Mr Lewis is also immediately setting up a small team in the Northern Ireland Office with relevant health experience to work directly with the NI Department of Health on the issue.

He said women and girls “must have access to safe, high-quality abortion care in Northern Ireland”, and added: “It is unacceptable that access to basic abortion healthcare is not available as it is across the rest of the UK.

“It has become increasingly clear the Northern Ireland Department of Health will fail to commission abortion services in full by the deadline I set out last year, despite being given every opportunity to do so.

“I am determined to do everything I can to ensure full services are delivered.”

In October last year, a High Court judge said Mr Lewis had failed to comply with his duties by not expeditiously ensuring provision for full abortion services for women in the region.

But Mr Justice Colton declined to make any order compelling Mr Lewis to set out a timetable for the provision of the services following a judicial review launched by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission over the failure to fund and commission abortion services in Northern Ireland.