U.K. Parliament Legalizes Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage in Northern Ireland
Parliament Buildings in Stormont Estate, Belfast. (Wikimedia Commons)
Members of the British Parliament have decriminalized abortion and legalized same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, according to BBC. Northern Ireland’s government, which has implemented some of the most restrictive laws against abortion, failed in its last-ditch attempt to block the changes on October 21. Northern Ireland is now required by law to implement the new rules for abortion by March 31, 2020, and provide for same-sex marriage by January 31, 2020.
The decision came in the backdrop of the Northern Ireland Assembly, or Stormont, remaining closed for over 1000 days, according to Euronews. The collapse of Northern Ireland’s government was triggered by the resignation of Martin McGuinness, of the nationalist Sinn Féin party, as deputy first minister after disagreements with the opposition party, the Democratic Union Party (DUP), in January 2017.
The Belfast government was designed as a power-sharing government, where parties are allocated ministerial posts according to their representation in the Assembly, by the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, according to Euronews. Due to the nature of Stormont’s structure, it requires both the DUP and Sinn Féin in order to form a government, as the positions of first minister and deputy first minister are appointed from the largest and second-largest parties, respectively.
The resignation of McGuinness therefore forced First Minister Arlene Foster, of the DUP, out of power. This dissolved the executive, according to the Independent. Fresh elections have been held, but both parties are unable to agree on certain terms and policies, creating a political vacuum in Northern Ireland for more than two years.
The British Parliament stepped in and voted to decriminalize abortion and legalize same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland on July 9 earlier this year, unless Stormont has reconvened and formed an executive by October 21, according to Time magazine. 31 members of Stormont, including 27 from the DUP, signed a petition to force a recall of the Assembly a week prior to October 21, seeking to block the law, according to the Guardian.
Despite the attempts to do so, the members that showed up at the Assembly session were unable to do anything before the deadline because the passing of any legislation required the election of a new speaker, which the nationalist parties had not agreed to, according to BBC.
Sinn Féin did not take part in the session, while the only attending member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the other nationalist party, left the chamber, making the election of a speaker impossible. The sitting was suspended after less than an hour.
Northern Ireland has had very strict laws against abortion, mainly due to religious values. In the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861, Section 58 makes the procurement of abortion-administering drugs or instruments illegal, leading to a possible felony and imprisonment for life if found guilty of its violations. Section 59 of the Act criminalizes the supply of drugs and instruments leading to abortion with a misdemeanor offense and penal servitude as consequences. The 1945 Criminal Justice Act allowed abortion only when the mother’s life was in danger.
Despite the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act, which legalized abortion in the U.K., Northern Ireland was still able to keep its own laws against it, even in cases of rape and incest. People from Northern Ireland traveling to the rest of the UK to get an abortion could also be prosecuted and sentenced under Northern Ireland law.
On October 3 this year, a High Court judge in Belfast found Northern Ireland’s abortion laws to violate the U.K.’s humans rights commitments, according to the Guardian. The case was of a woman who was not allowed abortion despite scans showing that her fetus would not survive, and the judge stated that no woman should not have to bear similar “trauma and pain.”