DUP vent fury at landslide vote to allow abortion in Northern Ireland

‘It is not right that we should drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement,’ says DUP deputy leader

The vote to liberalise abortion law in Northern Ireland has sparked a ferocious backlash from the Democratic Unionist Party and campaigners.

MPs resoundingly backed the right to abortion in the country at a historic vote on Tuesday. Northern Ireland currently has a ban on abortion in almost all cases – even rape or incest. Women seeking a termination can face life imprisonment.

The motion stipulated that the ban must be lifted if a devolved executive at Stormont is not restored by 21 October. The vote was passed by 332 to 99.

MPs also voted to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. The DUP argued that the votes made it more difficult to restore its power-sharing government with Sinn Fein, which collapsed in January 2017.

Outraged DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said marriage equality and abortion are “sensitive issues” and should have been a matter for the people of Northern Ireland to decide “through their elected representatives”.

“To do it this way is breaking the devolution settlement – that is not the way to make the law,” he told RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland.

“Democracy should provide the opportunity for people to make change, and that won’t happen if there’s no devolved government.”

The socially conservative DUP has opposed any change to same-sex marriage and abortion law in Northern Ireland, whereas Sinn Fein has been in favour of reform on both issues.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said: “It is not right that we should drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement in relation to certain issues which people feel passionately and deeply about here but which are the subject of devolved powers in Northern Ireland – and at a time when there are real prospects of discussions taking place among the political parties leading to an agreement for the restoration of devolution.

“The effect of taking decisions before agreements are reached is to skew those negotiations.”

The 1967 Abortion Act, which established legal abortion, has never applied in Northern Ireland and following devolution, health remains under the jurisdiction of the regional assembly in Stormont. However, the assembly has not sat for two years due to the ongoing impasse between unionist and nationalist parties.

Anti-abortion organisation Right to Life UK also hit out at the decision and argued it was an “unconstitutional and disrespectful attempt to override” devolution in Northern Ireland.

Clare McCarthy, a spokesperson for the organisation, added: “The law on this issue should be a decision for the people of Northern Ireland and their elected representatives, not for MPs in Westminster to decide.”

But while unionist leaders responded angrily to the move, the votes were welcomed by the centrist Alliance party and the moderate nationalist SDLP in Northern Ireland.

The changes came via amendments to an otherwise technical government bill linked to budgets and elections for the devolved assembly. Both were free votes as they were viewed as matters of conscience.

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who proposed the amendment on abortion, argued abortion laws in Northern Ireland went against international human rights standards.

“How much longer are the women of Northern Ireland expected to wait?” she told MPs. “How much more are they expected to suffer before we speak up – the best of what this place does – as human rights defenders, not human rights deniers?”

While abortion was legalised in the Republic of Ireland after a historic referendum in May last year, abortion in Northern Ireland is only permitted when there is a risk to the life of the mother or a serious risk to her physical or mental health.

Official statistics show 12 abortions were carried out in Northern Ireland last year. Amnesty International say more than 900 women travelled to England and Wales for the procedure during the same period.

Grainne Teggart, the organisation’s Northern Ireland campaign manager, said the vote marked a “significant defining moment” for women’s rights in Northern Ireland.

She added: “The grave harm and suffering under Northern Ireland’s abortion regime are finally coming to an end. At a time when prosecutions are still a grim reality, this cannot happen quickly enough.

“The devolved government had ample opportunity and regrettably failed. It is right that Westminster made the move yesterday. Women can’t wait. Women’s lives matter. The denial of our equality to date has been a stain on the UK government and the former Northern Ireland government.

“We can’t continue with a situation where women are being hauled through the courts for buying abortion pills online and denied access to healthcare. The next PM can see what the mood is in Westminster and we will not let them fail to follow through with the vote.”

The campaigner noted that in Northern Ireland around seven in 10 people want abortion decriminalised and the law reformed. She called for the UK government to immediately begin working on the legislation.

Franki Appleton, of UK abortion provider Marie Stopes, said: “For too long, women in Northern Ireland have been treated as second-class citizens, and the momentous vote in Westminster is the first step to righting this grievous wrong.”