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

Karin Smyth Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2020 General Committees

[Karin Smyth (Bristol South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David. I would like to start by thanking the Minister, his officials and the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith), for the way in which they have opened up and agreed to work with us constructively on this issue.

This has been a difficult issue for the Government, because for over 50 years, women in Northern Ireland have been denied rights equal to those of the rest of the United Kingdom. Politicians in Northern Ireland and Britain, of all political colours and in all Governments, have been united in ensuring that a complicated array of arguments have been deployed to ensure that women have no route to have their voice heard.

I pay tribute to all those women over those decades and, in many cases, their male partners, who have shared traumatic experiences and shone a light on the cruelty inflicted on them by a state that should care more. I also pay tribute to many campaigners and politicians who have pursued this over the decades, those who have offered refuge in Britain for women seeking help, and my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow, who last year brought a coalition of support together in this place to ensure that we meet our human rights obligations and end the decades of stalling on this issue.

Abortion has not been a criminal offence since last October. Services could have been provided since last October. All we are doing today is giving confidence to women and practitioners about the detailed scope of those services. We support the Government in laying these regulations, which have benefited from a great deal of discussion—the Minister has been very flexible in listening to people and making alterations along the way. As has been mentioned, we were disappointed to see the criminal sanctions reintroduced, but I understand why the Minister has seen fit to do that. There are some issues that I would like to raise with him.

The Government have been clear on their legal obligations since October. It is also clear that the Department of Health in Northern Ireland is not progressing with the commissioning of services to meet those obligations. Some services are available, but they have been developed by practitioners and third-sector support, which is necessarily piecemeal and geographically iniquitous—it is a postcode lottery and cannot continue. As strong supporters of devolution, we recognise that this is difficult political territory, but we will hold the Secretary of State to account to ensure that services are available, so that the UK Government meet their obligations.

As I have said, women in Northern Ireland have been ignored and bounced between Stormont and Westminster for 50 years. It would be particularly cruel for the Stormont and Westminster Governments to think that no more needs now to be done. It would be callous to force more women and their families to relive a trauma and bring legal proceedings to make wider commissioning happen. It is irresponsible that services are not currently commissioned more quickly to stop women having to travel during this pandemic. That does not show concern for all those women’s lives.

Will the Minister outline exactly how he will work with the Assembly and the Minister in Northern Ireland to ensure that services are commissioned beyond 10 weeks’ gestation? By what date can women in Northern Ireland expect to see that happen? We note and welcome the fact that the Government will continue to honour their commitment to funding travel from Northern Ireland to Britain. Will the Minister say how long the British taxpayer will be asked to support the refusal by the Northern Ireland Department of Health to provide a local service?

Before coming to this place, I worked as a commissioner of NHS services for some 20 years and served on a primary care trust as we developed sexual health services. Frankly, I have been really horrified by what I have learned in recent months about the level of sexual health services education in Northern Ireland. Although the Committee is discussing abortion regulations, I want to highlight the fact that during the passage of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, we talked about paragraph 86 of the CEDAW report, which is broadly about advice, guidance and education, including education for young people. It would be helpful if the Minister indicated how we will make sure that that particular provision is adhered to.

Finally, on the commissioning of services for very late abortions, as part of our inquiry on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly—led by Lord Dubs—I was a member of a Committee that took evidence in London, Belfast, Dublin and Liverpool. As a result of the public health approach that has been adopted in Britain, very late abortions are now thankfully rare and medical expertise is therefore highly specialised in Britain, as it is now particularly in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. Cross-border healthcare in Ireland is a key component of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Will the Minister indicate whether he will work to ensure that that area of healthcare is monitored as we progress, and to support the provision of and access to highly medicalised services for very late abortions across all these islands?

[Several hon. Members rose—]