Members of parliament, including four cabinet ministers, have backed a bill to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland.
The House of Commons voted yesterday (23 October) by 208 votes to 123 in favour of a bill introduced by Labour MP Diana Johnson that seeks to scrap 157-year-old laws that continue to make terminating a pregnancy in Northern Ireland illegal.
The laws no longer affect women in England, Scotland and Wales because of changes that were made in 1967, but continue to apply in Northern Ireland.
Women and equalities minister, Penny Mordaunt and Caroline Dinenage, health minister, were two of the four cabinet ministers to vote in favour of the draft legislation.
Diana Johnson, who has described Northern Ireland as having “one of the harshest abortion regimes in the world”, said she was “delighted with the outcome” of the vote.
However the bill is unlikely to become law because it currently does not have government backing.
Conservative MP, Fiona Bruce, opposed the bill saying it sought to “permit a women up to 24 weeks pregnancy to obtain an abortion for any or no reason at all”.
Director of pro-life charity, Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth said: “Pro-abortion MPs in Westminster have no regard for unborn children, but those who voted in favour of this Bill today have also shown utter contempt and disregard for devolution and democracy. Northern Ireland’s legislation on abortion is a devolved matter. It is for locally elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly to legislate on.”
Loading ...
