Summary of Judgment - In re NIHRC (Abortion)
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Neutral Citation | Summary of Judgment - In re NIHRC (Abortion) |
| Court | Court of Judicature (NI) |
| Date | 14 October 2021 |
Judicial Communications Office
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14 October 2021
COURT DELIVERS ABORTION DECISION
Summary of Judgment
Mr Justice Colton today declared that, in the period between April 2020 and March 2021, the
Secretary of State failed to comply with his duties under section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive
Formation etc) Act 2019 to “expeditiously” provide women in Northern Ireland with access to high
quality abortion and post abortion services. He declined, however, to make an Order of Mandamus
against the Secretary of State compelling him to make the services available. The judge also
dismissed a claim for judicial review against the Minister of Health and the Executive Committee.
Legal Background
Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 (“the 2019 Act”), which came
into force on 22 October 2019, imposed duties on the Secretary of State in relation to the provision of
abortion and post abortion services in NI including that:
The SoS must ensure that the recommendations in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW
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report are implemented in respect of NI;
The SoS must by regulations make changes to the law of NI as appear necessary or
appropriate for complying with the recommendation to implement the CEDAW report
including provisoin as to the circumstances in which an abortion may take place. The
Regulations must come into force by 31 March 2010;
The SoS must carry out the duties imposed by section 9 of the 2019 Act “expeditiously”,
recognising the importance of doing so for protecting the human rights of women in NI.
The Abortion (NI) (No.2) Regulations 2020
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(“the 2020 Regulations”) which were made in exercise of
the power conferred by section 9 of the 2019 Act came into force on 14 May 2020. They provided
that:
a pregnancy could be terminated for any reason before 12 weeks;
between 12 and 24 weeks a pregnancy may be terminated where continuance would involve
risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman which is greater than if
the pregnancy were terminated; and
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The CEDAW Report was published on 6 March 2018 following an inq uiry by the United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women into the law on abortion i n NI. The Report concluded
that the UK Government was responsible for grave and systemic violations of the Conven tion on the
Elimination of Discrimination of Women in that the law in NI has criminalised abortion, and co mpelled
women to continue pregnancies to full term, travel to access legal abortion services or to self -administer
abortifacients.
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The Abortion (NI) (No.2) Regulations 2020 (“the Abortion Regulations 2”) revoked the Abortion (NI)
Regulations 2020 but are materially identical. The purpose of the No. 2 Regulations was to correct some cross-
references in the Schedule.
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