Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is commissioning state-funded abortion services across Northern Ireland, after the region fails to provide support for women
The U.K. parliament decriminalised abortion in Northern Ireland in 2019, and now in 2022, they have begun funding these procedures for women and girls.
This move demonstrates how the Democratic Unionists have lost a key political standpoint topic in local government, where the support for abortion rights defies many of the Protestant evangelical beliefs of Northern Ireland, which formerly kept abortion illegal.
In the coming weeks, Chris Heaton-Harris is to meet Chief Executives of Health and Social Care Trusts to ensure these services can be provided.
Heaton-Harris said it was: “not right that three years on, women and girls in Northern Ireland are still unable to access the full range of health care to which they are lawfully entitled.”
“(IT WAS) not right that three years on, women and girls in Northern Ireland are still unable to access the full range of health care to which they are lawfully entitled.”
Abortion funding had previously been blocked to stop the expansion of abortion services
Access to abortion has long been fought against by the Democratic Unionists, who have a strong Protestant evangelical base.
They have said before they would protest against any Westminster effort to introduce terminations on demand, and they have often used their dominant position in Northern Ireland’s cross-community government to block any Stormont executive approval for spending to expand abortion services.
However, since it has been three years since the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, the UK Government stated their need to act, as the Northern Ireland Department of Health has not ensured the availability of services – and Northern Ireland has shown no indications that they will act to provide them.
The commissioning of abortion services follows the making of Regulations by the previous Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis in May 2022, which provided the UK Government with the same powers as a Northern Ireland Minister for the purposes of ensuring that the recommendations in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Report are implemented.
The Secretary of State is under a statutory obligation to ensure that safe services are available
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said: “The UK Government has been clear that the Government would commission abortion services if the Department of Health did not act to provide them.
“Three years on from the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, we will be ensuring the commissioning of abortion services by the UK Government. It is unfortunate that we have been forced to commission these services, in what should be a matter for the Department of Health to implement”.
“However, the Government has been left with no other option, as women and girls of Northern Ireland have been without safe and high quality services, with many having to travel to the rest of the UK to access healthcare to which they are legally entitled. That is unacceptable”.
“I will be meeting the Chief Executives of Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks to ensure these services can be provided. Ultimately, it remains the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive to fund abortion services in Northern Ireland”.
“The UK Government will ensure that appropriate funding is available to enable healthcare professionals to take the necessary steps to ensure that essential training and recruitment of staff can progress, and services can be implemented”.
