Reading West MP and former member of the Northern Ireland Select Committee, Martin Salter today held a debate in the House of Commons calling for women in Northern Ireland to be granted the same rights the access safe and legal abortion services on the NHS as those in mainland Britain.

Speaking in Westminster Hall Mr Salter said:-

“This issue is a matter for all us to be concerned with; it is a human rights issue. How anyone can sit back and believe it is OK to treat certain UK citizens as second class citizens purely on the basis of where they live is staggering. This is what is happening to women in Northern Ireland on a daily basis.

“Women in Northern Ireland have been waiting for over 40 years to secure the same sexual and reproductive rights as women in the rest of the UK. The 1967 Abortion Act allows women in England, Scotland and Wales to access safe, legal abortion services. For the women in Northern Ireland the situation is drastically different.

“The law governing abortion in Northern Ireland is the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. This means that women are only able to access abortion if their lives are in danger, or if continuing the pregnancy would lead to severe and permanent harm. The penalty for obtaining an illegal abortion is imprisonment for life.

“Northern Ireland women are living under a Victorian law created at a time of workhouses and child labour. In 1861, women were not even allowed to vote, yet this law continues to govern the health and lives of women in Northern Ireland.

“The law in Northern Ireland is so restrictive that even a 14 year girl who had been raped or was a victim of incest would not be able to access an abortion just because she had been raped or was a victim of incest.  It is one of the most restrictive laws on abortion in Europe.”

 Mr Salter told the Commons that over 70,000 women have travelled to England or to other countries from Northern Ireland to have legal abortions since the 1967 Act legalised abortion services for women in the rest of the United Kingdom. However, because abortion is all but illegal in Northern Ireland, the women were having to find upwards of £2,000 in order to pay privately. He also strongly criticised pro-life groups in Northern Ireland for deliberately picketing and harassing vulnerable women who were seeking advice and support at the offices of the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association.

Thanking Reading West MP, Martin Salter, on speaking out for the rights to abortion for Northern Ireland, women during today’s parliamentary debate ‘Abortion Law in Northern Ireland’, Director of the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association, Dr Audrey Simpson OBE said:

“The Family Planning Association are delighted that Martin Salter MP has given his time to support the women of Northern Ireland. Reproductive rights are as much an issue for women in Reading as they are in Belfast.

“fpa’s unplanned pregnancy counselling service in Northern Ireland deals with the heartbreak and trauma every day that women who are denied an abortion go through.

“We need Westminster MPs like Mr Salter to speak out on behalf of the women of Northern Ireland, as our own Assembly refuses to recognise their rights.”

In conclusion, Mr Salter said:-

“I will conclude by asking the Government to end the scandal of these Victorian laws which have no place in 21^st century Britain by committing to extending the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland while they are still able to. But, as a start to redressing the blatant inequality that these women face the Government can provide funding for women who are forced to travel to access safe and legal abortion services so they can access NHS services free of charge, as all other women in the UK can - that is the very least they should be doing.”