PRECIOUS LIFE WELCOMES COURT OF APPEAL REJECTION OF NHS ABORTIONS

The Court of Appeal in London has upheld a ruling that the NHS in England is not required to provide ‘free’ abortions to women from Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday 22nd July 2015, a young woman and her mother from Northern Ireland lost their appeal against Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt’s policy of not allowing NHS funded abortion for women who travel to England and Wales from Northern Ireland.

Last year in the High Court, Mr Justice King had ruled that women resident in Northern Ireland are not entitled to benefit from NHS abortion services in England, even though they are UK citizens. He declared that state-funded abortion is not a human right and that there was no breach of anti-discrimination laws under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Last Wednesday Lord Justice Elias, one of the Court of Appeal judges, confirmed that ‘it is not irrational’ for Hunt ‘to take the view that English taxpayers should not have to bear the cost of providing abortion services to women from Northern Ireland’.

Precious Life welcomes the defeat of this legal challenge.

Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, stated:

‘Thankfully, unborn children are legally protected in Northern Ireland. Since the formation of Precious Life eighteen years ago there has been a dramatic drop in the number of women travelling from Northern Ireland to England and Wales for abortion. This shows that when mothers are given loving support and practical help, rather than the cold and pitiless “quick fix solution” offered by one of the conditions of the Abortion Act 1967, mothers choose life for their little babies.

‘I believe that if we continue with our education campaigns and counselling outside the abortion referral agencies Family Planning Association and Marie Stopes, and with our upcoming arrival of Stanton Healthcare in October, we will see a further decrease in the numbers of women from Northern Ireland travelling to England and Wales or elsewhere for abortion.’






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