Northern Ireland has been forced to change its abortion law – here’s how it happened.
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Jennifer Thomson, University of Bath
Of all the strange twists and turns that UK politics have taken in recent years, the sudden legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is perhaps one of the most unexpected. At a time when the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party still props up the Westminster government, change seemed unlikely. The party is staunchly socially conservative and largely opposed to reform on both issues. Yet thanks to movement from Westminster, abortion has now been decriminalised in Northern Ireland.
Until October 21 2019, abortion was only legal in Northern Ireland if there was a severe and long-term physical or mental risk to the woman’s health. The Abortion Act introduced in the rest of the UK in 1967 was never extended to Northern Ireland, which has meant that every year hundreds of women have had to travel to England for terminations. They even had to pay for them until Westminster changed the law in 2018 to cover the cost.
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