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| It’s 2016 – and still women in Northern Ireland are punished for having abortions | It’s 2016 – and still women in Northern Ireland are punished for having abortions |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A woman in Manchester, like her cousin in Newcastle, or her sister in Glasgow or Llanelli, or her friend in Belfast or Derry, can be sure of her rights as a citizen of the United Kingdom: her right to a fair trial, her right to vote, her right to say what’s on her mind. A woman in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Llanelli or anywhere else in England, Scotland or Wales can choose whether or not to have an abortion. But in Northern Ireland, at this point, her rights abruptly expire. | A woman in Manchester, like her cousin in Newcastle, or her sister in Glasgow or Llanelli, or her friend in Belfast or Derry, can be sure of her rights as a citizen of the United Kingdom: her right to a fair trial, her right to vote, her right to say what’s on her mind. A woman in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Llanelli or anywhere else in England, Scotland or Wales can choose whether or not to have an abortion. But in Northern Ireland, at this point, her rights abruptly expire. |
| Related: Northern Irish woman given suspended sentence over self-induced abortion | |
| At Belfast crown court today the trial of a mother for procuring drugs to cause her young daughter to miscarry was adjourned. In the same court on Monday, a 21-year-old who at the age of 19 had also acquired drugs to induce miscarriage was given a three-month suspended sentence. | At Belfast crown court today the trial of a mother for procuring drugs to cause her young daughter to miscarry was adjourned. In the same court on Monday, a 21-year-old who at the age of 19 had also acquired drugs to induce miscarriage was given a three-month suspended sentence. |
| Each of these different stories is appalling, in the same way: first, and most overwhelmingly, in neither case did the pregnant woman have the right to choose. And second, in an atmosphere that some campaigners, in the language of the old East Germany, say fosters a kind of sexual Stasi, each defendant was informed against by people from whom she might reasonably have hoped for support. | Each of these different stories is appalling, in the same way: first, and most overwhelmingly, in neither case did the pregnant woman have the right to choose. And second, in an atmosphere that some campaigners, in the language of the old East Germany, say fosters a kind of sexual Stasi, each defendant was informed against by people from whom she might reasonably have hoped for support. |
| Devolution in the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland, has often been a difficult compromise with difference. Cultural, religious and historical distinctions have been painstakingly accommodated. Given the sometimes grim and always complicated relationship between Belfast and London, perhaps it’s no wonder the architects of the 1998 Good Friday agreement kept as far away from social policy as they possibly could. But for how much longer can the rest of the UK tolerate a situation in which half the population of one small part of it is denied a right that in the rest of the country has been taken for granted for nearly 50 years? | Devolution in the UK, particularly in Northern Ireland, has often been a difficult compromise with difference. Cultural, religious and historical distinctions have been painstakingly accommodated. Given the sometimes grim and always complicated relationship between Belfast and London, perhaps it’s no wonder the architects of the 1998 Good Friday agreement kept as far away from social policy as they possibly could. But for how much longer can the rest of the UK tolerate a situation in which half the population of one small part of it is denied a right that in the rest of the country has been taken for granted for nearly 50 years? |
| There is a right to abortion in Northern Ireland, but it is so tightly drawn as to be almost impossible to access. It does not even include the right to terminate a pregnancy when the foetus has a fatal abnormality; in fact, routine first trimester tests for foetal abnormality can be hard to get. Last November Mr Justice Horner ruled that not providing the right to terminate in those circumstances was a breach of human rights law. The attorney general for Northern Ireland, John Larkin – a vehement anti-abortion campaigner who once said that aborting a foetus with a fatal abnormality was like “putting a bullet in the back of [its] head … two days after it’s born” – is appealing against the ruling. In February the Northern Ireland assembly overwhelmingly voted down an attempt to accommodate it. | There is a right to abortion in Northern Ireland, but it is so tightly drawn as to be almost impossible to access. It does not even include the right to terminate a pregnancy when the foetus has a fatal abnormality; in fact, routine first trimester tests for foetal abnormality can be hard to get. Last November Mr Justice Horner ruled that not providing the right to terminate in those circumstances was a breach of human rights law. The attorney general for Northern Ireland, John Larkin – a vehement anti-abortion campaigner who once said that aborting a foetus with a fatal abnormality was like “putting a bullet in the back of [its] head … two days after it’s born” – is appealing against the ruling. In February the Northern Ireland assembly overwhelmingly voted down an attempt to accommodate it. |
| Related: Northern Ireland law on abortion ruled 'incompatible with human rights' | |
| Polls suggest that more than two-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland support abortion, at least in certain cases: severe disability, rape or incest, in addition to the current narrowly drawn condition that to continue a pregnancy poses a severe threat to a woman’s physical or mental health. | Polls suggest that more than two-thirds of voters in Northern Ireland support abortion, at least in certain cases: severe disability, rape or incest, in addition to the current narrowly drawn condition that to continue a pregnancy poses a severe threat to a woman’s physical or mental health. |
| Four years ago a Marie Stopes clinic opened in Belfast. Its arrival prompted new guidelines for doctors and medical staff. These had such a chilling effect on the provision of abortion that the number carried out by medical staff collapsed in the face of warnings about long terms of imprisonment for those deemed to have broken the law. A year later the number of abortions had fallen to 51 – about one a week. In the last year for which figures are available, it had fallen to just 16 barely one a month. | Four years ago a Marie Stopes clinic opened in Belfast. Its arrival prompted new guidelines for doctors and medical staff. These had such a chilling effect on the provision of abortion that the number carried out by medical staff collapsed in the face of warnings about long terms of imprisonment for those deemed to have broken the law. A year later the number of abortions had fallen to 51 – about one a week. In the last year for which figures are available, it had fallen to just 16 barely one a month. |
| Not quite a fortnight ago, new and slightly more liberal guidelines for the medical profession were published. They are no longer written in the emotionally charged language of “mothers” and “babies”; the more clinical terms “woman” and “foetus” are used. A small, very small, step. But after this week it is clear that the law that so tightly restricts access to abortion is not likely to be changed any time soon. | Not quite a fortnight ago, new and slightly more liberal guidelines for the medical profession were published. They are no longer written in the emotionally charged language of “mothers” and “babies”; the more clinical terms “woman” and “foetus” are used. A small, very small, step. But after this week it is clear that the law that so tightly restricts access to abortion is not likely to be changed any time soon. |
| Now ponder this: last week Donald Trump declared that women who had abortions should be punished. It was, perhaps, the ultimate misjudgment in a long and hair-raising series of bigoted utterances. All the same, it felt as if the western world erupted in a chorus of disbelief. Certainly Republican women angrily withdrew their support. Yesterday, less than a week later, Trump lost the Wisconsin primary, a race in which a mere eight days earlier he had been expected to romp home. | Now ponder this: last week Donald Trump declared that women who had abortions should be punished. It was, perhaps, the ultimate misjudgment in a long and hair-raising series of bigoted utterances. All the same, it felt as if the western world erupted in a chorus of disbelief. Certainly Republican women angrily withdrew their support. Yesterday, less than a week later, Trump lost the Wisconsin primary, a race in which a mere eight days earlier he had been expected to romp home. |
| Now return to the scene in Belfast crown court on Monday. A young woman of 21 is sentenced – or shall we say punished? – for having an abortion. Where was the western world this time? Studying its fingernails. | Now return to the scene in Belfast crown court on Monday. A young woman of 21 is sentenced – or shall we say punished? – for having an abortion. Where was the western world this time? Studying its fingernails. |
| Related: Think women seeking abortion in Northern Ireland have other options? Here’s the reality | Emma Campbell | |
| We all understand that in different places, the same stories have different news values. The island of Ireland is complicated. All the same, the US, Ireland and the UK are closely related worlds. We like the same movies, read the same books, share similar ideas of beauty. Sometimes we even laugh at the same things. And we treasure the same sense of humanity. | We all understand that in different places, the same stories have different news values. The island of Ireland is complicated. All the same, the US, Ireland and the UK are closely related worlds. We like the same movies, read the same books, share similar ideas of beauty. Sometimes we even laugh at the same things. And we treasure the same sense of humanity. |
| Yet in the US the frontrunner for the Republican nomination may have terminally ruined his prospects not by any one of his absurd proposals about, say, immigration, but by outraging even conservative members of his party with the proposition that a woman should be punished for seeking to control her own body. And in a part of the UK, a young woman now has a criminal conviction for, yes, controlling her own body. And no one even looks up. | Yet in the US the frontrunner for the Republican nomination may have terminally ruined his prospects not by any one of his absurd proposals about, say, immigration, but by outraging even conservative members of his party with the proposition that a woman should be punished for seeking to control her own body. And in a part of the UK, a young woman now has a criminal conviction for, yes, controlling her own body. And no one even looks up. |
| The state of the abortion laws on both sides of the border, in the south as well as the north of Ireland, are an insult to women everywhere. It is a scandal that thousands of women are reduced to a costly, lonely journey by sea or air that many cannot afford. And now they must risk prosecution for acquiring pills to induce miscarriage. For the politicians it is a way of exporting a problem that is much better quietly parked in the too difficult tray. For them, this is a convenient hypocrisy. | The state of the abortion laws on both sides of the border, in the south as well as the north of Ireland, are an insult to women everywhere. It is a scandal that thousands of women are reduced to a costly, lonely journey by sea or air that many cannot afford. And now they must risk prosecution for acquiring pills to induce miscarriage. For the politicians it is a way of exporting a problem that is much better quietly parked in the too difficult tray. For them, this is a convenient hypocrisy. |
| For thousands of women, this is a tragedy. Its real, corrosive wickedness is painfully revealed in interviews with the housemates of the young woman sentenced on Monday, the women who called in the police. They don’t deserve our hate. Their stories of shock and grief, reported today in the Belfast Telegraph, show they are victims too, another part of the true and wretched toll of denying access to abortion. | For thousands of women, this is a tragedy. Its real, corrosive wickedness is painfully revealed in interviews with the housemates of the young woman sentenced on Monday, the women who called in the police. They don’t deserve our hate. Their stories of shock and grief, reported today in the Belfast Telegraph, show they are victims too, another part of the true and wretched toll of denying access to abortion. |