Northern Ireland reportedly opposed the British government's abortion mandate that should be in full force before March 2022.
Live Action News reported that Northern Ireland's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, through its lawyer John Larkin QC, has pushed back against Britain's attempts to expand abortion in the country.
Larkin said Northern Ireland is not obliged with Northern Secretary Brandon Lewis' instructions on abortion. A separate instruction was sent to Northern Ireland's Department of Health to provide funding for early medical abortion.
The Irish Times explained that last July Lewis made a formal instruction directed to Northern Ireland top officials to make abortion services available in the country "as soon as possible, and no later than March 31st, 2022." The instruction was particularly addressed to Health Department Minister Robin Swann, to Health and Social Care Board First Minister Paul Givan, and Health and Social Care Board Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill.
Larkin pointed out in an interview with News Letter that Lewis does not have the legal power to require people to obey his "edicts."
"The Minister of the Crown cannot (...) boss people about unless the law gives them power to do it, and requires people to act in accordance with his edicts. It doesn't. There is simply no duty to comply with these, and that is significant in terms of whether or not they change the law of Northern Ireland. They don't," Larkin said.
News Letter reported that the Society for Protection of Unborn Children filed a lawsuit in behalf of prolifers to review the regulations given by Lewis on abortion also known as the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021. The said regulation allows "full termination services."
Northern Ireland had a power-sharing crisis in 2019 that the British government at Westminster exploited by legalizing abortion of up to 12 weeks and up to 24 weeks for some cases. The power-sharing crisis was eventually resolved and the said abortion law was not acted upon by the ruling Democratic Unionist Party. Thus, Lewis stepped in last July to enforce it with an expanded abortion access.
Prior to 2019, Northern Ireland was left by the British government at Westminster to act on its own regarding abortion. The scope of the British government's hold in Northern Ireland's affairs is said to be contained in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 while everything else is left to the management of the Northern Ireland's Stormont Assembly.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children cited the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 as reason for Lewis not having any legal power over Northern Ireland in so far as abortion is concerned. SPUC pointed out that Lewis is just pushing its abortion agenda in the country.
"(Lewis is) advancing his abortion agenda in any way he sees fit regardless of what the people of Northern Ireland think. In 2019...Westminster imposed the most radical abortion law in Europe on Northern Ireland. That law would never have secured a majority in the Stormont Assembly and a large section of the public remains steadfastly opposed to its implementation," Society for the Protection of Unborn Children Legal Officer Liam Gibson pointed out in an interview with the Irish Times early this month.
"Instead of acknowledging this, Mr. Lewis is trying to seize control over abortion policy by stripping locally elected ministers of any say on the matter," Gibson added.
