Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020

Baroness Harris of Richmond Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Harris of Richmond (LD) [V]]

My Lords, these regulations, as we have heard, introduce a framework to implement the CEDAW recommendations. It is time that those recommendations were fully enacted.

I say to those who want Northern Ireland to go in a different direction from the rest of the United Kingdom that they cannot have it both ways. We are all part of the same union, so women in Northern Ireland must be treated equally. It is their human right. Former chairman of the British Medical Association Dr John Marks, speaking after his retirement in 1999, said:

“Looking back over these 40 years, it seems to me that the event which has had the most beneficial effect on public health during that period has been the passage of the abortion Bill”.


That is a quite remarkable statement for such a senior medical person to make, and one we should note.