The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is asking the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) for advanced notice should the Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, decide unilaterally to expand abortion “services” in the Province. Advanced warning of such a move would allow SPUC to petition the High Court to order Mr Lewis to hold off until a ruling can be made on the legality of the Northern Ireland Abortion Regulations 2021. It is not yet clear whether Mr Lewis, who is the respondent in SPUC’s application for a judicial review, will agree to the request.
In a hearing, Thursday 17 June, Mr Justice Colton agreed to delay SPUC’s case which had been due to start on 29 June. It has now been pushed back to 4 October to allow Mr Lewis’s legal team more time to prepare his defence.
Under the 2021 Regulations, the Secretary of State assumed an unprecedented level of control over abortion policy in the Province by giving himself the power to direct the actions of local Ministers. By doing so he effectively stripped the people elected by the voters of Northern Ireland of all authority to deal with matters related to abortion. SPUC believes that this is incompatible with the terms of the Belfast Agreement and the devolved institutions established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
John Larkin, the former Northern Ireland Attorney General, appearing for SPUC at Thursday’s hearing said that the Society would seek an interim order to compel the Secretary of State to postpone any action until the legal challenge could be heard. He argued that it was unreasonable to allow Mr Lewis to benefit from a delay caused by the NIO’s failure to comply with the timetable set by the court.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which has been granted leave to intervene in the case, was opposed both to the postponement of the trial date and to the possibility that the court should prevent Mr Lewis from ordering the expansion of abortion provision. Counsel for the NIHRC claimed that the failure of the health service in Northern Ireland to provide abortions after 10 weeks was a breach of the Secretary of State’s legal obligations and a violation of the human rights of women seeking abortion.
Two other intervening parties, the Equality Commission and Rosaleen McElhenny, did not object to the proposed delay. Mrs McElhinney, the mother of a disabled child, believes the 2021 Regulations are discriminatory. She also disputes the Secretary of State’s authority to introduce “a strategy to combat gender-based stereotypes regarding women’s primary role as mothers” as set out in Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation, etc) Act 2019.
Liam Gibson SPUC Northern Ireland Political Officer said: “This is a complex and extremely important case. Understandably, the court wishes to provide time for the issues to be fully debated. But that is why the Secretary of State should reconsider his intention to overrule the structures of the devolved institutions and force his radical abortion agenda on the people of Northern Ireland.
“The behaviour of the London government since it struck down Northern Ireland’s pro-life laws in 2019 demonstrates that the influence of the abortion lobby is not only a threat to the rights of the unborn, it is also a threat to the principles of accountable government and the rule of law.”