Northern Irish couple told to carry remains from English abortion clinic in picnic cooler bag

It is a criminal offence in Northern Ireland to have an abortion

Picture: (Getty)

A Northern Irish couple was told to take foetal remains from England to Northern Ireland in a picnic cooler bag after travelling for an abortion, it has been reported.

The couple travelled to England from Northern Ireland to terminate a pregnancy, which is a criminal offence under Northern Irish law. Paediatric pathologist Dr Caroline Gannon told BBC NI she gave the advice to the couple. The pregnancy had been diagnosed as having a fatal foetal abnormality and so the couple required a post mortem examination in Northern Ireland, in order to establish why this had occured.

As abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland, they had to travel to an abortion clinic in England and then return with the remains to Northern Ireland so a post mortem could subsequently be undertaken.

Dr Gannon says she has since resigned in protest at the laws, saying she feels her position is “untenable”.The father of the woman who travelled for the abortion told BBC Talkback her pregnancy had been diagnosed as having a fatal foetal abnormality. He said he and his wife went to the clinic in England along with the couple to support his daughter and her partner and help bring back the remains so that a port mortem examination could be carried out in Belfast. He said: “We were to bring it back to save them having to do that. It was a traumatic day and night. We got the foetus and put it in the cool bag and started driving at 2am in the morning up the motorway.”

He said: “It is a horrendous and a terrible shame that Northern Ireland in this day and age has to look people in the eye around the world and say this is the way we deal with things.”

Unlike the rest of the UK, the 1967 abortion act does not apply to Northern Ireland, where it remains a criminal offence to have a termination. Many people leave Northern Ireland and travel to England in order to have the procedures. In November of last year, Belfast High Court found the abortion ban to be a breach of human rights law.

In February of this year the Northern Irish Assembly debated whether to relax the laws to permit terminations in cases of rape or incest, or if the foetus was so severely disabled it could not survive outside the womb. However, they voted to keep the ban.

In April a 21-year-old Northern Irish woman was put on trial and found guilty of having an abortion when she was 19-years-old. The court heard that she had a crisis pregnancy and tried to save up enough money to travel to England for an abortion but could not afford to do so. She then ordered abortion pills online and performed an abortion on herself at home. Her flatmates found foetal remains and blood stained clothes in a bin and reported her to police, after which she was arrested.

Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin has vowed to appeal last year’s High Court ruling that the ban breaching international human rights law. Mr Larkin is vocally anti-abortion and has previously described terminations as akin to shooting a live baby in the head. Dr Gannon said his attempts to intervene in the ruling influenced her decision to resign. She told BBC NI: “I think he was the tipping point. The workload we had was manageable, but then when these rulings came out- that was the tipping point for me, professionally, I just felt I was acting unethically by taking part in this system where parents are denied a voice in what happened to their baby.”

Although healthcare is a devolved issued, human rights legislation is not. Westminster has been urged to pass legislation in the House of Commons overturning the ban, however it has gained little support among the main parties.

It is believed that around a thousand Northern Irish women travel to England every year to access terminations. It is feared a growing number may be buying pills illegally online to perform terminations on themselves at home in Northern Ireland.

A spokesperson for the Northern Irish Attorney General told The Independent: "While there is no barrier under our law to a post-mortem examination of the remains of babies who are aborted in England and Wales, a Northern Ireland Coroner has no jurisdiction to conduct an inquest where death occurs outside Northern Ireland and a Northern Ireland Coroner cannot, therefore, order a post mortem investigation in respect of any death occurring outside Northern Ireland. That territorial limitation on jurisdiction applies to any death, whether of a still-born child or of an adult travelling abroad."