MPs seek to extend abortion law to Northern Ireland

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Tom Griffin (London, The Green Ribbon): A cross-party group of MPs yesterday tabled an amendment to the Embryology Bill that would extend Britain's post-1967 abortion law to Northern Ireland.

This could be an interesting can of worms for the Prime Minister as the Sunday Telegraph noted at the weekend:

The issue is doubly politically sensitive for Mr Brown because it threatens to reopen the row about how Labour secured the support of nine Democratic Unionist party MPs – crucial to the Government's success in winning last month's Commons vote on extending the period terrorist suspects can be held without charge to 42 days. The Prime Minister has denied any "deal" was done with the DUP. However, Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, reassured the DUP at the time that the Government had no plans to extend abortion laws to the province. 

According to the Telegraph, Brown has already headed off an attempt to amend the bill by Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry.

Any commitments on 42 days are unlikely to deter the leading figure behind the latest amendment, Diane Abbott, who set out her case in a Guardian article yesterday:

When it comes to the right to choose, women in Northern Ireland are second-class citizens. They are denied the NHS treatment and funding for abortion that is permitted to every other woman in the United Kingdom. So, since 1967, over 50,000 of these women have been forced to travel to England and pay for an abortion privately. Surveys reveal that most of those women would have preferred to have the operation at home in Northern Ireland, but they feel that they have no choice.

The unionist premise of this argument met with a swift response from DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson:

 The first thing to note here is that different bodies of law apply in different parts of the United Kingdom. Those who argue that this is about the universal application of a law in the United Kingdom are doing so on the basis of a false premise. The legal system that applies in Scotland is different in many ways from that which applies in England, which in turns differs from Northern Ireland. This amendment is not based on any lofty notion about people in one part of the United Kingdom not having the same rights as others. It is about circumventing the expressed opinions of the Northern Ireland populace.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan is equally opposed to extending abortion to Northern Ireland, but the terms of his argument include a challenge to the DUP:

this issue once again highlights why it is important that the devolution of justice and policing powers take place as soon as possible.

“Then we can ensure that important decisions such as these remain within the control of the Assembly.

If the North has one thing in common with Britain on abortion, it is that the debate cuts across normal party lines, something that is well reflected in Slugger's thread on the issue.

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