Pro-choice campaigners welcome British government’s pledge to fund abortions for women from Northern Ireland

Every year, more than 700 women and girls resident in Northern Ireland travel to Great Britain for terminations. Until June 2017, they had to pay privately: for their own healthcare in England, and for any travel or accommodation expenses involved in making the journey across the Irish Sea. Abortions are criminalised in Northern Ireland in all but a very tiny number of extreme cases, and they were blocked from accessing free NHS services when travelling to other parts of the UK.

However, in June 2017 over 105 MPs backed Stella Creasy MP’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech on allowing Northern Irish women access to free NHS abortion services in England, and hours before a debate and vote on the amendment was due to take place in Parliament the Government announced a u-turn to its previous policy. More background to the amendment is available here. 

As a result, since 29 June 2017 women and girls who travel from Northern Ireland have been able to access abortion services in clinics in England free of charge. However, two significant issues remained unaddressed:

(1)  The travel and accommodation expenses for low income women, for whom the cost of the termination itself was only one barrier to travel; and

(2)  Access was only through clinics, but in some complex cases women require hospital treatment, and they were unable to access this in England due to a barrier on accessing NHS services in England in non-emergency situations.

Today, Equalities Minister Justine Greening has announced details of the new scheme which addresses both of these concerns. The scheme will include travel and accommodation costs for women on low incomes, and women with a clinical need to access termination services in a hospital setting will be able to do so.

Pro-choice campaigners have worked closely with the Department of Equalities since June 2017 on the details of the scheme, and they have welcomed today’s announcement. Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC has represented the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign in these discussions, working alongside Stella Creasy MP’s constituent, Sarah Fox, and other organisations; and Jude Bunting has been providing advice to the Family Planning Association and others. A joint press release has been issued today by the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, Abortion Support Network, Alliance for Choice, Amnesty International UK, the Family Planning Association, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas), Marie Stopes UK, and Stella Creasy MP. It can be viewed here. It includes this quote from Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC: "For half a century Northern Irish women and girls have been second class citizens, unable to access healthcare services freely available to women in Great Britain. This new scheme in England is very welcome, but now the law in Northern Ireland must change.”