UK government under pressure to change Northern Ireland abortion laws

Thirteen MPs, led by Labour’s Diane Abbott, have signed a Commons motion calling for legal abortion for women across the United Kingdom. 

An attempt to extend abortion laws to Northern Ireland failed this month, after government whipped votes were used to block free voting on the abortion elements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland except in exceptional medical circumstances, such as when the mother’s health is at risk

This Early Day Motion (EDM) calls on the government to provide NHS funding for women in Northern Ireland to access abortion services in Great Britain. It notes that women in Northern Ireland are forced to travel overseas at their own expense for care and that thousands of women are forced into motherhood, illegal abortion or debt each year because they do not have the same reproductive rights as women in other parts of the United Kingdom. Early Day Motions such as this one are useful to test Parliamentary opinion and gain support for an issue, but are usually not debated by MPs.

MPs sign new NI abortion motion. BBC News, 31 October 2008

See the Early Day Motion online

Also read:

1967 Abortion Act section, Abortion Review