A pro-choice group in the North has taken the first steps in a legal battle which it says will force the British government to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. It may eventually take its case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Derry-based Alliance For Choice groups announced yesterday that it had written to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, asking her to extend the Act.
Currently the Act applies in Britain, while the abortion laws in the North are still governed by the 1908 Offences Against the Person Act.
The resulting legal situation is unclear and it is estimated that over 2,000 women travel to Britain from the North each year to have an abortion.
In their letter to Dr Mowlam, Alliance for Choice said that having taken legal advice, it was of the view that the current legal situation in the North placed the "UK government in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights." Ms Anne Hamilton, spokeswoman for Alliance For Choice, said if Dr Mowlam replies saying she has no plans to extend the Act, the Alliance would seek a judicial review. "We are confident that the courts will find the government in violation of international human rights law," she said.
Its confidence is based on the findings, six years ago, of the British Parliamentary Standing Advisory Committee on Human Rights which concluded that as the law stood, it "could not withstand a challenge before the European Court of Human Rights."
In August, the seven branches of the Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Association were forced to close following pickets by Precious Life, the Northern Irish affiliate of Youth Defence.
