UK Government to order abortions in NI

The UK Government will force the commissioning of abortion services in Northern Ireland after a long stand off over this issue at Stormont.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris MP ordered the move and will meet with health chiefs in NI in the coming weeks to ensure that it is carried out.

Mr Heaton-Harris said: “The UK Government has been clear that the Government would commission abortion services if the Department of Health did not act to provide them".

“Three years on from the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, we will be ensuring the commissioning of abortion services by the UK Government."

Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019 when the Assembly was not functioning, through a controversial amendment to UK Government regulations.

At the time, pleas to allow NI citizens to determine the Province's path on abortion - which comes under the devolved area of health - fell on deaf ears.

In the period between 2019 and 2022, no central commissioning of abortion services has been ordered with Stormont's main parties - the DUP and Sinn Fein - at loggerheads over the issue.

Responding to the news, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland said it regretted the UK Government's "intention to continue to override our fragile devolved settlement in relation to such sensitive issues".

The church added that Ministers will also "potentially interfere with matters which stretch beyond the provision of abortion services, in education and other areas, which is clearly worrying".

The Church of Ireland commented: "We oppose the extreme abortion legislation imposed on Northern Ireland by the United Kingdom Parliament in what was previously considered a devolved issue and ask that legislation is developed that safeguards the well-being of both the mother and unborn child.”

The DUP’s Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart also hit out at the decision by UK Ministers, saying: “This is a backward step for Northern Ireland which not only undermines the devolution settlement but more importantly makes Northern Ireland a more dangerous place for the unborn".