THE DEPARTMENT of Health in Northern Ireland has produced guidelines aimed at providing clarity on when abortion can be permitted in the North.
Pro-choice groups have welcomed the move while some anti-abortion representatives have characterised the guidelines as an attempt to legalise abortion through the “back door”.
The guidelines were issued on the back of a Court of Appeal judgment five years ago calling on the department to provide clarity on abortion in Northern Ireland.
The guidelines were approved by the Northern Executive although DUP Ministers on the Executive opposed the guidelines. Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP supported the proposals.
The guidelines make no changes to the law in Northern Ireland and do not extend the British 1967 Abortion Act to the North.
The Department of Health outlines that in summary abortion is legal where “it is necessary to preserve the life of the woman or there is a risk of real and serious adverse effect on her physical or mental health, which is either long term or permanent”.
“In any other circumstances it would be unlawful to perform such an operation,” its guidelines add.
Foetal abnormality is not recognised as a ground for abortion in itself, although if it was found to constitute a serious threat to the physical or mental health of the woman it would. There is no reference to rape in the guidelines although again abortion would be permitted if it were found to constitute a serious physical or mental threat to the woman.
The guidelines state that anyone who unlawfully performs an abortion is liable to criminal prosecution with a maximum penalty of life in prison. A person who is a “secondary party” to such a termination faces the same penalty.
Medical assessment of women aged 18 or more seeking an abortion in the North would “most appropriately” be carried out by a consultant general adult psychiatrist. A GP or consultant obstetrician “who had prior knowledge of the woman and her clinical circumstances, and who is both experienced and competent in making mental health assessment in these situations, would also be appropriate to carry out the assessment”. For those under 18, a child and adolescent psychiatrist is deemed appropriate to make the assessment.
The guidelines say while there is no legal right to refuse to take part in a lawful abortion, no one should compel staff who have a conscientious objection to abortion to take part in a termination. Where a doctor has a conscientious objection to abortion he or she should make arrangements where the woman can be referred to another colleague.
DUP Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson said his party voted against the guidelines because it had reservations about some elements of the proposals. What was clear was that “we will not be liberalising the law on abortion here”.
SDLP health spokeswoman Carmel Hanna welcomed the clarification of the clinical guidelines “on the understanding that the absolute legal ban on abortion remains unchanged”.
“As a party that was born out of the civil rights movement, the SDLP believes that the right to life is the most basic right of all. That includes the right to life of the unborn,” she said.
UUP health spokesman John McAllister said the guidelines “recognise and reaffirm the present legal situation – that, except where it is required to preserve the life of the woman, abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland”.
Bernadette Smyth, of Precious Life, said the proposals were an attempt “by the back door” to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland. “The guidelines fail to distinguish between direct abortion – when the child is intentionally killed – and indirect abortion – when the child dies unintentionally as a result of the mother receiving life-saving medical treatment,” she added.
Alliance for Choice group spokeswoman Goretti Horgan said “while the guidance does not change the law in any way, it does make it clear that women here have a right to end a pregnancy that threatens their physical or mental health”.
Her group would continue to campaign for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland, she added.
