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The UK Government is preparing regulations to take the
necessary powers to directly commission abortion services in
Northern Ireland if urgent progress is not made
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Team of experts brought in to the Northern Ireland Office to
monitor progress and assist the NI Department of Health
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Northern Ireland Secretary, – “women and girls must
have access to safe, high-quality abortion care in Northern
Ireland as they do everywhere else in the UK”
The UK Government has announced today (Thursday 24 March) its
intention to prepare work on further regulations to ensure
abortion services are available in Northern Ireland.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, , has today set out the
legislative options being explored by the UK Government, in a
Written Ministerial Statement.
The announcement comes as it becomes increasingly clear that the
Northern Ireland Department for Health will miss the deadline of
the end of March to ensure abortion services in Northern Ireland
are commissioned in full.
The regulations being planned, if they must be enacted, would
place a further duty on the Department of Health to make abortion
services available as soon as is reasonably practicable, and
remove the need for Executive Committee approval before services
can be commissioned.
The Secretary of State will have the powers to intervene directly
following the Assembly elections in May, if sufficient progress
has still not been made.
The Secretary of State is also immediately setting up a small
team in the Northern Ireland Office with relevant health
experience to work directly with the NI Department of Health on
this issue.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said:
“I firmly believe women and girls must have access to safe,
high-quality abortion care in Northern Ireland. It is
unacceptable that access to basic abortion healthcare is not
available as it is across the rest of the UK.
“It has become increasingly clear the Northern Ireland Department
of Health will fail to commission abortion services in full by
the deadline I set out last year despite being given every
opportunity to do so.
“I am determined to do everything I can to ensure full services
are delivered.”
