NI secretary to intervene on Stormont abortion stand-off
The Government will take legislative action in a bid to end a stand-off over commissioning abortion services in Northern Ireland.
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis is set to lay a regulation at Westminster giving him the power to direct the Department of Health to commission full services.
He is expected to outline his position in a written ministerial statement on Tuesday afternoon.
The move comes ahead of a legal challenge by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission over the ongoing failure to make terminations widely available in Northern Ireland.
Amnesty International have welcomed the laying of legislation at Westminster.
Grainne Teggart, the Northern Ireland Campaigns Manager, said: “Yet again, women and girls in Northern Ireland have been failed by the inaction of Stormont Ministers.
“And once again, action at Westminster is necessary to ensure abortion rights are realised in Northern Ireland.
“It’s not too late for the Health Minister to do his job and provide access to lawful abortion services for all who need them."
Abortion laws were liberalised by MPs at Westminster in 2019 at a time when powersharing was collapsed.
New regulations came into operation a year ago and, while individual health trusts are offering services on an ad hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services on a region-wide basis.
In the absence of fully commissioned services being available, women from Northern Ireland are still travelling to England to access abortions.
Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann has maintained he cannot commission services without the approval of the wider five-party coalition Executive, insisting it is his legal responsibility to refer controversial or significant decisions to the other ministers.
However, for such an issue to secure Executive approval, both of the two main parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, must agree to it.
The DUP is anti-abortion and has blocked Mr Swann's proposal.
The DUP has warned that an intervention by the Government would represent a breach of the devolution settlement for Northern Ireland and have "serious consequences" for the future operation of Stormont.
There will be no parliamentary debate on the Government move on Tuesday.
MPs and Lords will instead convene to decide whether to approve the intervention in the coming weeks.