Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021

Maria Miller Excerpts

Monday 26th April 2021 General Committees

[Mrs Maria Miller (Basingstoke) (Con)]

I support the delegated legislation before us today, and I want to question the Government on the extent of the direction that they seek to give the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland is implemented in full and in the best interests of the people of that part of the United Kingdom.

Devolution is now part and parcel of our United Kingdom. We recognise that some services can and should be delivered locally in different ways, but when it comes to the core values that bind us together, including our commitment as a country to human rights and the rule of law, we take a UK-wide approach. Decisions to sign up to conventions such as the UN CEDAW convention to eliminate discrimination against women are taken at a UK Government level for the whole of our nation. Such conventions and obligations triggered the change in the law in Northern Ireland that we are discussing today. Decisions on whether domestic policies are human rights-compliant are taken by the UK-wide Supreme Court.

These are not matters where, as a United Kingdom, we feel there should be differences. We stand together so that every citizen has the same rights and protections no matter where they live. When the UK Parliament legislated to bring Northern Ireland’s approach to sexual and reproductive health into line with the recommendations in CEDAW’s 2018 report, it was acting democratically with that in mind and following the 2018 Supreme Court judges’ majority view that the then law on abortion in Northern Ireland was incompatible with human rights law. Whether we represent constituencies in Northern Ireland or not, this becomes a matter for everybody in this Parliament—doubly so because the Northern Ireland Executive was not in existence when the UN reported and when the Supreme Court made its views clear, at a time when UK Ministers in this Government were clearly legally responsible for those elements usually handled under devolution.

To bring the situation in Northern Ireland into compliance with human rights law, changes were made on access to abortion in Northern Ireland more than a year ago. In law, abortion services should now be available as a regular healthcare service in Northern Ireland so that women and girls can safely access local services. However, we have heard from hon. Members who have already spoken, that is not the case, and those women and girls continue to be denied the same reproductive rights as women and girls in the rest of the UK. Services that should be available by law are not. Despite broader access to abortion now being legal in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Department of Health has not commissioned or funded services to reflect that. That has resulted in patchy and unsustainable local provision. Early abortion services are currently run by local health trusts without funding or commissioning, which has put them at risk of temporary or permanent closure.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said that its chief executives and medical directors in Northern Ireland are supportive, particularly of early medical abortion services. But trusts have cited a lack of funding, intense workload and uncertainty about the permanence of the services due to a lack of commissioning. Currently, there are no services beyond 10 weeks in any trust in Northern Ireland. Just this Friday, Western Trust announced that it has ceased providing all abortion care, and will refuse referrals.

We know that the impact is greatest on those who are most vulnerable, particularly those who are victims of domestic violence or who may have significant mental health problems. Nobody can fail to be moved by some of the heartbreaking stories of women being forced to carry full-term babies who medical professionals advise are not able to survive through birth.

I would very much appreciate the Minister taking the opportunity, while talking through the regulations, to answer some specific questions that are important context for us all as we move forward. The hon. Member for Pontypridd talked about having a timetable so that we can be clear on how long the Government feel it is reasonable to consider this issue, in terms of their having available to them a power to direct the Northern Ireland Executive to move forward.

Individuals who lead the provision of sexual health services in Northern Ireland have already produced a comprehensive set of proposals for the roll-out of sexual health services in Northern Ireland. The report by Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup includes widespread recommendations on how we move forward from here. I do not think anybody can question the professional integrity of that group, because it includes the Northern Ireland representative of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, among a great array of professional people.

Does the Minister agree that there are good recommendations for the Executive in that report, as well as recommendations specifically addressing commissioning abortion services and underlining the importance of a co-ordinated and cohesive approach, including on investing in sexual health more broadly, removing barriers to contraception and updating relationship and sex education? To what extent does the Minister expect those responsible in Northern Ireland to liaise with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on practical issues such as those outlined in the report?

Can the Minister confirm which organisation will oversee the roll-out of the new services in Northern Ireland? Presumably, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority will have a role to ensure that there is compliance with the direction that the Minister will potentially give to the Executive. If it has a role, will it produce reviews and, if so, how frequently?

On primary care, we all know as constituency MPs that GPs play a crucial role in delivering sexual health services and referrals. Does the Minister expect the Royal College of General Practitioners to play an active role in supporting the implementation of these important new regulations? On contraception, will the Minister make it clear in his direction that contraception is an inherent part of a quality sexual health service for women and that it will be an absolute necessity for it to be part of the services commissioned?

Another issue brought up by the body that I was just talking about, which has been putting together recommendations on this area, is protests outside clinics. That is another obstacle to individuals’ access to abortion services. Although I in no way want to restrict people’s right to freedom of speech, the Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup’s recommendations clearly state that space outside, or in close proximity to, an abortion service or pregnancy counselling centre is not an appropriate location to oppose abortion provision. Will the Minister be taking a view on that as part of what he would expect in the roll-out of recommendations on abortion services in Northern Ireland?

I know that many hon. Members want to speak in this debate, so last, but by no means least, relationships and sex education is a crucial part of any good sexual health service in our country. To what extent will the Minister be keeping a close eye on the way in which relationships and sex education is reformed in Northern Ireland to ensure that it is entirely in line with a full sexual health service for women and girls in Northern Ireland and, indeed, the whole population?

Although issues to do with abortion are rightly matters of great debate and concern, as a United Kingdom, we believe that women and girls should have access to top-quality sexual health education and medication, including abortion services. That is underlined by our support for international conventions, which we have already discussed. As a United Kingdom, we also believe in the rule of law. No one, including the Governments of devolved nations, should be above the law. The Government are acting correctly today to ensure that the law is enforced. I want to take this opportunity to thank the organisations that have worked tirelessly on this issue on behalf of women and girls in Northern Ireland, many of which have provided very important factual briefings for this debate.

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[Miriam Cates]

I have deep empathy for women in that situation—not only in Northern Ireland but across the world, under all different circumstances. As I said, I will come on to that point.

The fact that the legislation is not only limited to abortion regulations, but reaches far beyond that, concerns me. Motherhood is valuable, honourable and a deep responsibility—it is a privilege. If that is a gender stereotype that is being put forward in legislation as negative, I reject that, and I imagine that many mothers in Northern Ireland would also do so. Even if the Secretary of State chooses never to use these directive powers, I do not see how anyone can vote for them without sending the impression that the importance of motherhood is questionable or second best.

The regulations tear up the principles of devolution and disregard the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland. They could enforce a potentially unsafe abortion regime and represent an overreach of the state into the role of motherhood.

[Mrs Miller]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech, but surely this debate is about the rule of law. As parliamentarians, we either uphold the rule of law or we do not. A law has been passed, but it has not been adhered to. Surely she agrees with the rule of law.

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[Carla Lockhart]

Well, living in Northern Ireland and representing a large constituency there, I know that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want laws that choose life. They want life-affirming laws and they want laws that help life to continue. That is why, in common with the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge, I call on the Government to repeal section 9.

[Mrs Miller]

The hon. Lady is doing a very good job putting her case, but I note that she does not refer to the majority view of the UK Supreme Court, which found that it was entirely likely that the position in Northern Ireland would be out of kilter with human rights law. Surely she sees that, at that point, there was a need to act.

[Carla Lockhart]

I thank the right hon. Lady for making that point, which gives me the opportunity to say that had that ruling been binding, which it was not, and as she will be aware, it would have changed Northern Ireland’s abortion laws in only a very, very minor way around foetal abnormality. That does not weigh up against the far-reaching laws that the Government are forcing on the people of Northern Ireland, which are among the most liberal in Europe.

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[Sir John Hayes]

That is true, and the Committee that considered this issue before this Committee said that it was unprecedented in respect not only of Northern Ireland, but of any of the devolved nations. The decision that this Committee looks set to take—I will not put it more strongly than that—in supporting the regulations is so exceptional as to be noteworthy, as I described, and the hon. Lady has amplified.

It has been acknowledged that these issues understandably give rise to strong views, but on a matter as sensitive as this what is happening is particularly reprehensible. It would be reprehensible on a constitutional basis, regardless of the issue, but on a matter that causes such grave concern in Northern Ireland it is all the more so.

Today’s regulations are the continuation of a process that has fallen far short of the standards to which we as legislators should hold ourselves. I am not for one minute suggesting that people in Scotland and Wales think as the people of Northern Ireland do concerning abortion, but the precedents flowing from the way in which we are treating Northern Ireland with respect to the sustainability of the current devolution settlement across our kingdom are obvious.

Do not tell me that this is a matter of the sovereignty of Parliament, which we have heard suggested once or twice. Parliament has been sovereign since 1707. The fact that it can do certain things does not mean that it must do all things or should even do those things that it can. Parliament is sovereign by way of our constitution. By that constitution, it constrains itself by convention, and there are few more important conventions than upholding the Union and the Acts of Parliament that underpin it.

I recommend our Attorney General’s views on judicial activism and the creeping role of the Supreme Court in making public policy. If those views are not sufficiently persuasive, I recommend the views of the former Supreme Court judge, Lord Sumption, who has been clear that democratic legitimacy relies on the judiciary knowing what its constraints should be.

[Mrs Miller]

Surely my right hon. Friend is arguing against himself. If the Committee decides not to act today in introducing laws that improve the situation in Northern Ireland the Supreme Court will have no better action to take than effectively to put law in place of a vacuum. The current situation has been judged to be in convention with human rights, so we have no choice other than to act on that particular point.

[Sir John Hayes]

My right hon. Friend is right; the Government’s best course of action is to repeal the changes that were made when there was no devolution settlement. There is the prospect of further legal challenge, which I would certainly strongly support given all the things I said earlier about the 1998 Act establishing the devolution settlement; about the fact that this has been described again today by a Committee of this Parliament as being unprecedented; and about the basis on which the Assembly was reassembled and its legal underpinning. What we are doing today is highly questionable and I recommend that the Government think again.

The Minister says that Northern Ireland has some opportunity to interpret the regulations and come forward with its own settlement that stays within the law but does not go as far as some would want. That is true. Northern Ireland can come forward with a settlement, but these regulations are effectively a gun to the head of the people of Northern Ireland, saying, “Either you do what we want by your own decision or we will decide for you.” I hesitate to say anything critical of the Minister because I regard him highly, but it is a slightly deceptive argument to suggest that the Northern Irish can sort this out when a gun is being placed against their heads.

Not for nothing are many people in Northern Ireland very proud of the “One Hundred Thousand” report, confirmed by the Advertising Standards Authority as showing that probably 100,000 people are alive in Northern Ireland today who would not be had the Province embraced the Abortion Act 1967.

Moreover, when talking about the sovereignty of Parliament we must recall that a key aspect is that no Parliament can bind its successors. Section 9 was passed in a Bill the introduction of which defined its purpose in terms of the restoration of the Executive. That was in a previous Parliament and it could have been—it would and should have been—this Government’s course of action to say, “That was then and now is now.” A different Parliament and a different set of arrangements in Northern Ireland necessitates a different approach. That would not have been unreasonable given what I said about the need to maintain the integrity of devolution.

Rather than asking Parliament to pass these regulations, the Government should recognise the current reality and instead ask our new Parliament to welcome the restoration of the Assembly and to repeal section 9, as I said in response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke. In making that point, I would say to the advocates of abortion that that would be a debate to have across the House, but more especially in Northern Ireland. If those who want abortion to be more widely available in Northern Ireland make their case and persuade their elected representatives to share that view, living in a democratic kingdom, the majority view will prevail.

It is important to say that the regulations are of course about abortion and its availability in the Province, but they are about something much more: how much we value devolved decision making, how much we respect the different opinions that prevail in different parts of this kingdom and how much we really believe that the sovereignty of this Parliament is enhanced when we are big enough to say that people in different parts of the kingdom can come to different conclusions from the majority view here.

Do we care so little about the distinct regional identities of our Union, unless we take exactly the same approach to abortion in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the United Kingdom, that we would extinguish people’s opinions and eliminate the majority view there? Are we to honour devolution only when those to whom we give power agree with us? Will the Government be content to build their future on past mistakes? Is this an Administration who listen, or do they dictate?

To misunderstand the salience of those questions, or the significance of the answers, would be among the worst political miscalculations of any Conservative Government since the Union began in 1707. As we sit under the gaze of Joseph Chamberlain—