NI abortion law: Sinn Féin to bring proposal on commissioning services
- Published
Abortion laws in Northern Ireland changed last year after legislation passed at Westminster
Sinn Féin has said it will bring a proposal to the NI Executive this week to have abortion services commissioned in Northern Ireland.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was "totally unacceptable" that commissioning has been delayed, after new laws came into force in 2020.
NI Secretary Brandon Lewis tweeted that he would "welcome a renewed focus" on the issue.
Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019.
In April 2020, health trusts began operating interim abortion services but Health Minister Robin Swann said that wider commissioning of services by the Department of Health was a cross-cutting matter - one that is the responsibility of more than one Stormont department - and so required executive approval.
'Take obligations seriously'
Amnesty International has since criticised abortion services provision in Northern Ireland as a "postcode lottery" while the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) said it was launching legal action over the commissioning delay, external.
Sinn Féin said Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey would bring a proposal on the matter to executive colleagues this week.
"Women in the north are legally entitled to modern and compassionate healthcare and it is totally unacceptable that two years on the health minister has not commissioned services," said Ms McDonald.
She added that the "refusal to act has been particularly difficult for women during the pandemic and has put women's health at risk".
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "It has been the health minister's stated position that this is a matter for the executive as a whole to consider."
On Saturday, Mr Lewis tweeted that everyone should "take our obligations on the issue extremely seriously" and that "it is a human right to be able to access quality healthcare".
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Under the new laws, terminations can be carried out in all circumstances in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.
There is also no time limit for terminations when there is a "substantial risk" a fetus would suffer a severe mental or physical impairment or in cases of fatal fetal abnormality.
Prior to the new laws, abortion was only allowed in very limited circumstances.
The planned motion from Sinn Féin comes a month after the DUP proposed a new law that would prevent abortions in cases of non-fatal disabilities.
Campaigners have argued that the current law allows terminations without time limit for conditions such as Down's syndrome and cleft palate.
The NI Assembly has agreed to refer the planned legislation to the NIHRC.
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