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 The region's socially conservative health minister Robin Swann has
declined to order the health service to provide abortions,
commission information campaigns, and also declined to introduce
emergency telemedicine measures offered in the rest of the United
Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Non-government groups and some medical professionals have stepped in
to provide information and some services - 129 abortions took place
from April 1 when the law changed to May 22, versus eight in the
previous two years when terminations were allowed only if a woman's
life was at risk.
But the full range of services allowed under the law are not yet
available, forcing some women to continue to travel to England or
Ireland.
Politicians in the regional mandatory coalition government between
pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists are divided - and the
British parliament insists that any outcome must include the level
of provision required by United Nations Human Rights law - leaving
the route to a possible resolution unclear.
"I am gutted by what has been happening since the laws changed in
April," said Ashleigh Topley, 33, an activist who challenged
abortion restrictions through the courts after being denied a
termination in 2014 when her daughter suffered a fatal foetal
abnormality.
"I should have not been as naive to think it was a done deal."
Opponents, including leading Northern Irish politicians, say
Britain's parliament went too far last July when it voted to
legalise abortion in Northern Ireland and create one of the most
liberal abortion regimes in Europe, with abortion without
restriction up to 12 weeks.
"DUCKING OBLIGATIONS"
Health Minister Swann, a unionist who describes himself as
"pro-life", says he wants Northern Ireland's power-sharing
government to be involved in taking action which falls under his
department's remit.
In an official letter addressing concerns seen by Reuters, Swann
wrote: "Until such times the commissioning of abortion services has
been agreed by the Executive and consulted upon, service will not be
widely available."
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However, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill of the Irish
nationalist Sinn Fein party has said the health minister must implement the
regulations.
Swann's department declined to comment.
The lack of guidance and training for medical professionals is proving
problematic. The Alliance for Choice activist group says it has been contacted
by a pro-choice doctor seeking guidance from them in the absence of official
information.
A junior doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology, who does not want to
provide abortion services and spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity,
said he also wants clarity: "A lack of meaningful conscientious objection to
abortion would be extremely disappointing."
For women seeking an abortion, the hurdle is finding information, with pro- and
anti-abortion groups offering advice online in the absence of a state-funded
public campaign.
As a result some women seeking abortion have unwittingly ended up on the
premises of anti-abortion groups, said Breedagh Hughes, a former midwife and
member of the Northern Ireland abortion and contraceptive task-force.
Some pro-abortion groups are helping women source abortion pills on the
Internet, bypassing a requirement to attend a doctor in person, but the NGOs
helping them find interim services implemented at a handful of sites by staff
whose normal responsibilities are on hold due to COVID-19 fear this capacity is
likely to disappear once COVID-19 restrictions ease.
"If the health minister continues to duck his obligations, when the impact of
COVID subsides on normal sexual and reproductive services, then women will be
sent back to England, to come back home bleeding and in pain," Hughes said.
(Editing by Conor Humphries and Giles Elgood)
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