The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion Bill passed its second stage
Health Minister Robin Swann answered an urgent question on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
Finance Minister Conor Murphy delivered a statement to the assembly on Covid-19 business support schemes
Education Minister Peter Weir and Finance Minister Conor Murphy answered MLAs' questions
The clerk reads the result.
The bill passes its second stage by 48 votes to 12.
Twenty-seven members voted in both lobbies.
The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill now moves to the committee stage.
That's all from Stormont for this evening.
We'll be back on the Hill tomorrow at 10:30 for another full plenary session.
In meantime, stay safe and enjoy your evening.
Image source, PacemakerAn SDLP MP has called for the first and deputy first ministers to establish a taskforce to oversee transformation in the Holyland area in Belfast.
Claire Hanna said the area has "systemic problems" that require long-term solutions.
She advised young people not to go to there for St Patrick's Day later this week.
Earlier this month, police issued £11,000 in Covid fines after breaking up seven parties in the area.
It’s been a lengthy debate, but the proposer of the bill is back on his feet to wind on the discussion.
Paul Givan says some members have spent “more time attacking the messenger rather than actually looking at the message”.
“My phone has not stopped with the hurt and the distress that has been caused to people,” during the debate, says the DUP MLA.
Image source, NI Assembly“I’m not seeking to rush anything through,” says the Lagan Valley politician in response to criticism around the timeframe of the bill.
“The standard applied to how Westminster has dealt with this, and cheered on by some of those who are now criticising my bill, it doesn’t compare at all,” he adds.
“This bill is entirely in keeping with Human Rights legalisation,” says Paul Givan in response to earlier comments raised by Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw.
“I commend the second stage of this bill to the house,” the member concludes.
Alex Maskey, the Speaker, puts the bill to an oral vote.
With no clear agreement, the house divides.
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Image source, NI AssemblyIndependent MLA Claire Sugden is the penultimate speaker of this debate.
“If this bill make its full passage through this house, I do expect to find it within the courts and then it won’t be implemented, so what’s the point of this?” she questions.
She points to her "confliction" around abortion and states that for her, "it is an incredibly complicated issue in the context of an imperfect world and years of bad governance."
"It's not a choice when society doesn't given you a choice," she remarks.
Image source, NI AssemblyMLAs return from their short break and Independent MLA Trevor Lunn restarts the debate.
He says he is "absolutely in support of Paul Givan's bill".
He says he is broadly in support of the current Act governing abortion in Northern Ireland "apart from the few words linked at the end referencing severe fetal impairment".
Mr Lunn says equality under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act "must start before birth. It must do. It must confer that right on the unborn child just as much as somebody looking for a job".
Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter
The sensitive issue of abortion has long divided opinion in Northern Ireland.
In recent years, the laws have changed and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is now attempting to amend them again.
The laws covering abortion in Northern Ireland were initially the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and later the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Act and Infant Life (Preservation) Act in 1945.
Image source, Getty ImagesIn the vast majority of circumstances, it was a criminal offence in Northern Ireland to have or perform an abortion.
It meant that in many cases, women from NI seeking access to abortion services had to travel to England.
The contentious matter ended up before the courts on a number of occasions, and also divided parties in the Stormont Assembly.
You'll find a timeline of key events that have led to this point by clicking here.
Speaker of the house, Alex Maskey, intervenes in proceedings.
MLAs have been discussing this bill for just over three hours.
He advises members to take a break and return to the chamber at 19:00 when Trevor Lunn, the Independent MLA, will have his chance to speak on the bill.
Image source, NI AssemblyGerry Carroll begins his statement by saying it is “an absolute disgrace” that abortion services legislated for by Westminster are still not in place.
The People Before Profit MLA tells the chamber says he wants to pay tribute to campaigners who he commends for "working tirelessly”.
Mr Carroll says he is in favour of a woman’s right to choose and believes it’s “a gross effort to play off the needs of women to have proper modern medical care against people with disabilities.”
He will not be supporting Paul Givan’s Bill.
Roy Beggs of the UUP says he supports the general principles of the bill.
He says he has friends and constituents who have a cleft lip or Down's Syndrome.
Why should their lives have "risked being terminated at some point whilst they were unborn?" the East Antrim MLA says.
Image source, NI AssemblyRachel Woods says the Green Party will not be supporting the bill.
She says she has a message for women watching the debate:
"If this bill is passed it is saying to you, as a woman, who has found herself in a really difficult circumstance with your pregnancy, that you're on your own."
Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, is speaking from the back benches in her capacity as an MLA rather than as first minister.
She commends Paul Givan, her party colleague, for bringing forward “this piece of legislation”.
“People in this house will not take away my voice to stand up for women who believe in protecting those young people who have Down’s Syndrome and who have value in this society,” says Mrs Foster.
She outlines that she hadn’t intended to speak on the bill today but had been “distressed” at some of the contributions made during the debate.
Image source, NI Assembly“This past year has taught us much about the fragility of life,” says Arlene Foster.
“No one’s life is less valuable, and this standard should apply to life inside and outside the womb,” she adds.
“We are entering, I have to say, into the realm of eugenics ladies and gentlemen, and you can deny that all you like, but we’re on a very, very slippy slope."
Image source, NI AssemblyLeader of the Green Party NI, Clare Bailey, says she will vote against the Bill:
"I support my right to choose if I continue with a pregnancy and my right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. I support that right for any and all women to have that choice."
She adds: "The only role for anyone else, who is not me or not the woman who has to make that choice is to support them in making that decision."
Ms Bailey highlights her view of women having to travel to England to access terminations.
She says: "This Irish Sea border has always existed for women in Northern Ireland."
Andrew Muir of Alliance explains his thinking on the bill.
"The first sight I had of this bill and its specific proposals was on the 16th of February of this year when the bill was first introduced. No prior consultation was undertaken and this, whilst permissible, is I feel a serious oversight," he says.
"It is not, I believe, any fit and proper way to deal with such a sensitive, detailed and complicated issue," Mr Muir adds.
Image source, NI AssemblyJim Allister of the TUV says that "when we talk about abortion we're talking about the deliberate, calculated act of snuffing out human life".
The North Antrim MLA says today's vote "will decide whether it's on the side of life or on the side of death" and if "disability justifies death".
Image source, NI AssemblyNorth Down MLA Alan Chambers says he will be supporting the bill.
The Ulster Unionist says he’s received over 700 pieces of correspondence asking him to support it, while receiving two emails from professional bodies asking him to oppose it.
Mr Chambers adds that the assembly’s task would be much easier if every medical voice expressed the same opinion.
He says, “It cannot be right that the stroke of a legislator’s pen could deny them the gift of life."
"We don't abort people because they are going to grow up in poor families where there are disadvantages so why would this apply?" says the SDLP's Dolores Kelly.
"I would hope that the message will go out from this chamber that we all across this chamber have recognised that we can and must do better in supporting people with disabilities, in supporting the women who have got that devastating prognosis or diagnosis in relation to their unborn child and that we help them," she adds.
Image source, NI Assembly
Image source, NI Assembly“Without this bill, we are saying that children with disabilities, while in the womb, are not equal with other children. I cannot emphasis enough how strongly I disagree with that sentiment,” says Gordon Lyons.
The DUP MLA then reads directly from a letter sent to him by a “friend and former constituent of mine”.
Image source, NI AssemblyCaoimhe Archibald of Sinn Féin says “the DUP are seeking to perpetuate gender inequalities”.
The MLA says “the health and justice minister need to look at ensuring safe zones around clinics”.
She adds that the DUP “are so exercised at the north being treated differently when it comes to trade arrangements” but that the same cannot be said of their approach to human rights.
Image source, NI AssemblyMatters relating to abortion are an individual conscience issue, says Chris Lyttle of the Alliance party.
He refers to his previous stance on such issues in the assembly.
“I do, however, have concern regarding legislative provision for abortion on the grounds of severe fetal impairment, particularly if it provides for abortion on the grounds of disability” says the East Belfast MLA.
Mr Lyttle says he’ll be voting for more detailed scrutiny of the bill at the Health Committee.
Image source, NI AssemblyRobbie Butler of the UUP says he’s speaking in support of the bill.
He makes it clear to MLAs that abortion is a matter of conscience for those in his party, and so he is speaking for himself.
The Lagan Valley MLA says leaving the current legislation unamended would be “devastating”.
Mr Butler urges other MLAs to vote in favour of Paul Givan's Private Members' Bill.
Image source, NI AssemblySinead McLaughlin says the proposed amendment “hurts me to my core”.
The SDLP MLA tells a personal story of how her mother gave birth to a stillborn boy in the 1960s and didn’t find out where he was buried.
Ms McLaughlin says she’s telling this story because it happened in her lifetime, before adding that a woman’s reproductive journey has “always been resisted, always been challenged and it is full of contradictions.”
She says access to abortion services is “an essential component of women’s healthcare”.
Image source, NI AssemblyColm Gildernew is the chairperson of the Health Committee.
He outlines the committee’s consideration of the Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill.
The committee agreed it wouldn’t take a position on the principles of the bill, he says.
In his role as Sinn Féin health spokesperson, Mr Gildernew says “at no time have we seen evidence of the DUP fighting for the extension of rights to anyone”.