23 July 2008

Today fpa is officially launching its groundbreaking campaign to secure rights to abortion in Northern Ireland. Currently women in Northern Ireland do not have the legal right to choose. Supported by celebrities Tony Robinson, Polly Toynbee and Dr Miriam Stoppard, fpa has launched a national postcard and internet campaign and working with the Voice for Choice coalition[1] and supporting a cross party group of MPs[2] who are putting down an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. This amendment will extend abortion across the whole of the UK to include Northern Ireland and will be debated in the House of Commons after the summer recess.

The 1967 Abortion Act was never extended to Northern Ireland. Therefore, abortion is a procedure only available in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Because of this discrimination, since 1967, over 50,000 women in Northern Ireland have been forced to travel to England and pay, not just for a private abortion, but all the associated costs of accommodation and travel. In 2007 alone, almost 1,400[3]  women left Northern Ireland and paid up to two and a half thousand pounds to have an abortion.

fpa provides the only impartial and non-judgemental counselling service in Northern Ireland. Every day fpa supports women desperately needing an abortion in a country that will not offer them one. As well as women with unplanned pregnancy, women with planned pregnancies that have been diagnosed with fetal abnormality and women who’ve been raped, are prevented from having an abortion.

fpa believes women in Northern Ireland should have the same right to choose as women in Britain. Six thousand postcards asking people to lobby their MP to vote for the Northern Ireland amendment have been sent out. fpa will be working hard with the pro-choice movement, lobbying MPs to vote yes to modernisation, and to finally give women in Northern Ireland equal rights.

Dr Audrey Simpson, OBE, Director of fpa Services in Northern Ireland said:

“Emotive and moral arguments cannot be stronger forces than the laws governing basic human rights in Northern Ireland.

“Women in the rest of the United Kingdom have access to abortion. Due to discrimination and inequality, women in Northern Ireland do not. Abortion in Northern Ireland is not just a health issue, it’s also a class issue, because it’s only women with the financial means who’ve got the option to travel overseas and pay for the procedure themselves.”

Julie Bentley, Chief Executive of fpa said,

“The leaders of the four main political parties and the leaders of the main church groups in Northern Ireland have all demanded that abortion should remain highly restricted. Only 16.6 per cent of the Northern Ireland Assembly are women. So the situation exists that groups of men are making decisions about women’s lives and creating a division of rights and entitlement between women, on the basis that they live in different regions of the UK.“

Celebrity support for abortion rights in Northern Ireland

"One of the most shameful political acts of the year has been that the rights of pregnant women in Northern Ireland have not been addressed in the same way that they have been in the rest of Britain. To rectify this will doubtless take courage, but to leave this wrong unattended will be an act of cowardice on the part of the entire political class."
Broadcaster and Presenter, Tony Robinson

"We have to end the discrimination against women in Northern Ireland which as citizens of the UK, forbids them from having an abortion in their own home country."
Broadcaster and columnist, Polly Toynbee

Forcing women in Northern Ireland to travel overseas to England in order to have an abortion which they have to pay for themselves makes a traumatic situation much worse. This delay also means they’ll have their abortion much later into their pregnancy than is necessary.”
Broadcaster and columnist, Dr Miriam Stoppard

Find out more about fpa's campaign for women's rights to abortion in Northern Ireland

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For further information please contact fpa’s press office on 020 7608 5265/5264, mobile 07958 921060 or Dr Audrey Simpson 028 90316 102, mobile 07985 382 702.

fpa (Family Planning Association) is the only registered charity working to improve the sexual health and reproductive rights of all people throughout the UK.

Notes to editors

[1] Voice for Choice is a national coalition of organisations working alongside the All Party Pro-Choice and Sexual Health Group to campaign for a woman’s choice on abortion.

[2] Diane Abbott MP, Jacqui Lait MP, Dr Evan Harris MP, Katy Clark MP, John Bercow MP, John McDonnell MP have signed an amendment to extend rights to abortion to Northern Ireland.

[3] 1,343 women travelled from Northern Ireland to have an abortion in England in 2007.

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