A pro-life group is challenging Northern Ireland’s Government guidelines on abortion at the High Court in an attempt to quash the Government’s current advice which was published in March 2009.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is claiming that the abortion guidance issued to health professionals is misleading and legally inaccurate. The group is seeking a High Court declaration (judicial review) that it does not properly set out the law.
Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland, except in circumstances where the mother’s life or mental health are considered at risk.
James Dingemans QC, barrister acting for SPUC, outlined to Lord Justice Girvan, a Belfast High Court Judge, why the government’s guidance was inadequate and needs to be withdrawn and re-examined so that it deals more adequately with the issues. He drew attention to the issue of informed consent. He also highlighted the lack of information in the guidance which doctors could pass on to their patients about the risks and other potential consequences of abortion, in particular the mental health impact.
Mr Dingemans QC also said that, despite the Health Department's claims, unborn children in Northern Ireland had rights. Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act and the 1945 Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Act both safeguard those rights. Abortion actually has been an offence under the common law going back much further than that.
Mr Dingemans QC said that women were entitled to treatment which protected their lives, but it was wholly misleading for the health department to portray the law as allowing so-called termination of pregnancy services. He also pointed out that media commentators had mistakenly concluded that the government’s guidance suggested that abortion had been liberalized in Northern Ireland, SPUC reported.
The hearing is due to last two days and it is expected that Lord Justice Girvan will reserve his decision.
The Department of Health’s legal representatives rejected allegations it had failed to make clear that abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland apart from in the most exceptional circumstances.
Pro-life campaigner Liam Gibson told that the law needs clarified.
‘We believe that the guidance does not fully reflect the illegality of abortion in Northern Ireland. Abortion is a criminal offence, it is not a medical treatment.
‘This has almost been sidelined by the way the department has decided to represent the law so it is misleading or potentially misleading,’ he said.
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