The London High Court rules out that women from Northern Ireland can have Access to free abortions on the NHS in England

The current legislation on abortion in Northern Ireland is one of the most restrictive in Europe and only allows legal Access to abortions in the case where a woman can prove that her life in in danger or that there is the risk of permanent and serious damage to here mental or physical health, which in practise turns out to be impossible to achieve.

 

This situation of the violation of sexual and reproductive rights obliges more than 1,000 women from Northern Ireland to travel to different parts of the UK every year to get an abortion. Currently, these women have to pay their transport, accommodation and the procedure, which supposes a cost of around £900.

 

The case that has been taken to the High Court was assembled in October 2012 when the girl, then 15 years old, got pregnant. Amidst the impossibility of aborting under the restrictive legislation in Northern Ireland, the girl travelled with her mother to England but they had problems paying the cost of the abortion privately, as they told the court.

 

In its final decision, the London Supreme Court based itself on considering the cause as a matter of decentralised legal positions and not as a discrimination matter, as the young girls defence argued.

 

The judge, in his verdict, said that the differences in legal positions have to be taken into consideration. The Secretary of Health’s obligation to promote an integrated health service in England is “a duty in relation to the physical and mental health of the people of England”, dismissing that this duty can be extended “to people who habitually live in Northern Ireland”.

Therefore, the judge ruled that Northern Ireland is not obliged by the 1967 Abortion law, as is applied to the rest of the United kingdom. The case was not a question of discrimination but rather legal positions and therefore the women from Northern Ireland will not be able to obtain the NHS funded abortion services, even though these pregnancy termination services will be done in England.

 

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, that helps women from Northern Ireland, stated, “ We are upset, but not surprised about the decision that women from northern Ireland don’t have the right to NHS funded abortion treatment in England.”

 

This situation supposes serious discrimination for the women from Northern Ireland, which denies them safe Access to a fundamental sexual health and reproduction service like the termination of an unwanted pregnancy and instead risk their health through illegal methods like the online purchase of abortion medication.

 

International studies, from the WHO and the UN, conclude that the restrictive laws on abortion don’t reduce their number but instead provoke a number of dangerous abortions, putting the health and life of the women that decide to abort at great risk.

 

Lawyer Angela Jackman, who represented the girl and her mother, asks: “ Why do women from Northern Ireland have top ay for this health service in England despite being UK citizens? And what is it supposed that women from Northern Ireland should do that need to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, if economically they cant afford to access the service privately in England?”