Supreme Court narrowly rejects Northern Ireland abortion law appeal

Supreme Court judges have rejected an appeal from a mother and daughter calling for women in Northern Ireland to receive free abortions on the NHS in England.

The two women brought the case after the daughter fell pregnant in 2012, when she was 15, and travelled to England with her mother for an abortion at a private clinic.

They argued that the UK health secretary has the power to make provisions for Northern Ireland residents to access free NHS abortions in England and claimed it was "unlawful" that he had not done so.

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Delivering the ruling today, judge Lord Wilson said it was not for the court to "address the ethical considerations which underlie the difference" in the law regarding abortion.

But he added that the five judges had been "sharply divided" on the case, which was decided on a majority verdict of three to two.

Wilson also expressed sympathy for women facing unwanted pregnancies in Northern Ireland and said the law put many of them in a "deeply unenviable position".

Following the decision, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed there were no economic reasons that Northern Irish women couldn't access NHS-funded abortion care.

Health and justice are devolved matters in Northern Ireland and the law on abortion is much stricter in the province than in the rest of the UK, with the procedure only permitted if a woman's life is at risk, or there is a permanent or serious risk to her mental or physical health.

"Rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities are not circumstances in which abortions can be performed legally in Northern Ireland," reports the BBC.

According to figures released yesterday, more than 700 women travelled from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion in 2016, although the actual number may be far higher as the number of abortion tablets bought online is increasing.

The report has prompted fresh calls for the reform of Northern Irish law, but so far the ruling Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) "has resisted even moderate attempts to reform the law to allow women who have been raped, for example, to seek terminations", says The Guardian.

Last year, DUP leader Arlene Foster said: "I would not want abortion to be as freely available here as it is in England."

Amnesty International has called on the government to commit to pushing for abortion law reform in Northern Ireland.

Grainne Teggart, of Amnesty’s Belfast office, said: "The UK government has a responsibility to deliver abortion rights for women in Northern Ireland. A failure to do so would be a cruel betrayal of women.

"Whilst health and justice are devolved matters, the UK government is responsible for upholding human rights."