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Alliance for Choice

Free, Safe, Legal, Local Abortion For Everyone Who Needs It

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    • Callout for project
    • #CareAtHome
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Abortion Healthcare Sector Optimistic at New Cross Party Push for Abortion Rights for Northern Ireland in UK Parliament

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As organisations who have supported the push for abortion access in Northern Ireland we are encouraged by the possibility of movement in Westminster. Another Executive Functions Bill points to the failures of the devolved Northern Irish Assembly and the continued refusal of the UK government to act decisively in the interest of NI citizens.

As well as a number of ongoing Judicial Reviews, and the statement by the Supreme Court Judges in 2018, the UN has repeatedly called on the UK government to provide equal access to abortion services across all the regions without criminalisation. Devolution is not a barrier when human rights are at stake and where the health and private lives of women, pregnant people and their families are jeopardised by the unjust ramifications of the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act. It’s time that Parliament acted to use its powers to remove this draconian legislation and prove that they regard people who need abortion in NI as equal to those in England.

The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey has consistently shown that the people of Northern Ireland want Westminster to legislate to reform the abortion law, and over 80% of NI people surveyed for the Trade Union report, Abortion as a Workplace Issue study said they did not want women criminalised. There is a clear ministerial and Parliamentary majority for supporting these changes for Northern Ireland we simply need the opportunity for MPs to act.

Each of our organisations working across this issue have been answering calls to people in distress for far too long. Not one more person should be arrested, not one more woman should be forced to secretly take abortion pills without knowing she has the support of medical staff if she needs aftercare and not one more girl should have to travel on a plane to access healthcare after being the victim of a sexual crime.

All of us would urge MPs across the house to listen to the people of Northern Ireland, to the tens of thousands who have voted with their feet and taken planes and boats to England for over 50 years. No matter what happens in Parliament this coming week, someone will be on a plane tonight and someone else tomorrow morning, alone, away from home and the friends and family that could be their support network.

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“HereNI, Alliance for Choice Belfast & Derry, BPAS, In Her Shoes - North, London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, Doctors for Choice UK, Doctors for Choice Northern Ireland, NUS USI Northern Ireland, Amnesty UK, Abortion Support Network, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, My Body My Life, The Rainbow Project NI, Humanists UK, Antenatal Results and Choices, The 343, Trust Us NUS USI, WANDA Feminism and Moving Image, No More Shame, Outburst Queer Arts Festival, NUS Women’s Campaign, Marie Stopes UK, Array Studios, Belfast Feminist Network, Brook, Maternity Action, Reclaim the Night Belfast, Committee on the Administration of Justice NI, Project Choice, Medical Students for Choice QUB, Reclaim the Agenda, Abortion Rights UK, Decolonise Contraception, Women Help Women”
— Supported by the above organisations
Real People's Abortion Stories

More Info Courtesy of BPAS:

New Clauses 11 and 12 Amendment

  • NC11 and NC12 have been laid to Northern Ireland legislation before the House on 9th July 2019. They are substantive amendments that will not affect the passage of the bill.

  • NC11 requires the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in the absence of NI ministers, to make an oral statement to the House of Commons on the progress towards implementing recommendations of the UN’s CEDAW Inquiry into Northern Ireland which found that the law should be amended in Northern Ireland to decriminalise abortion.

  • NC12 draws attention to UK government’s reasoning that it will not act to protect human rights in Northern Ireland in the absence of Northern Irish Ministers, despite their obligations under the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and ensures that nothing in this Act can be read so as to derogate from these obligations.

    Supporters

  • NC11 and 12 have been signed by more than 60 MPs.

  • They have been proposed by Stella Creasy. Supporters include George Freeman, Diana Johnson, Ed Vaizey, Jo Swinson, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry, and Caroline Lucas.

    Background

  • In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland today, any woman who ends her own pregnancy at any stage can be sent to prison for life under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – a law created before women could even vote.

  • With the Supreme Court stating that the current situation regarding the lack of access to abortion for women in Northern Ireland to be a breach of human rights, Members of Parliament and campaigners have been calling for the UK Government to intervene to protect the rights of the people of Northern Ireland.

    The Now for NI campaign

  • The Now for NI campaign is run by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. In conjunction with Amnesty Northern Ireland and Alliance for Choice, we are campaigning to repeal and reform this law, decriminalising abortion in Northern Ireland, England, and Wales.

tags: legislation, abortion, Northern Ireland, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Stella Creasy
categories: Legal
Thursday 07.04.19
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Debate on Abortion in Northern Ireland following Repeal referendum result in Ireland

Abortion debate in Westninster regarding NI following referendum in Ireland in 2018

Read more

tags: Westminster, abortion, Debate
categories: Legal
Wednesday 01.23.19
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Government figures show just 12 women accessed abortion care in Northern Ireland 2017-2018

 Even those who could be considered to meet the limited legal circumstances provided in the 1861 Act and the Bourne Judgment are being denied care at home and forced to travel, break the law, or continue with a pregnancy against their will.

Read more

tags: girls, Westminster, department of health, Northern Ireland
categories: Legal
Wednesday 01.23.19
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Alliance for Choice petition has over 45,000 signatures!

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Alliance for Choice continues to receive calls from desperate people who can't travel, worried that accessing abortion pills online will see them arrested. We have been let down by our representatives who either refuse to take seat in Parliament or refuse to acknowledge the public will in NI for change. Westminster has the power to make this change.

Read more

tags: petition, Westminster, abortion, sign, Repeal 58/59
categories: Legal
Tuesday 12.11.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

The Women and Equalities Committee launches inquiry looking into abortion law in Northern Ireland.

Westminster want evidence that Northern Ireland wants change to the Abortion Laws

Westminster want evidence that Northern Ireland wants change to the Abortion Laws

The Women and Equalities Committee launches inquiry looking into abortion law in Northern Ireland.

Read more

tags: Inquiry, abortion, Northern Ireland
categories: Legal
Thursday 11.08.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Adopt a Peer (or two) for NI

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Equal Rights for NI

Please email members of the House of Lords to ask them to support Clause 4 on the NI Bill

Please email members of the House of Lords to ask them to support Clause 4 on the NI Bill

Read more

categories: Legal
Monday 10.29.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

This week we could decriminalise abortion and get marriage equality for NI

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What is happening?

This week there are two important debates happening in Westminster which could help change the law in Northern Ireland.

On Tuesday Diana Johnston is bringing a 10 Minute Rule Bill calling for the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

On Wednesday Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn have tabled amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Function) Bill. These amendments would allow for the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, and provision for same sex marriage.

Read more

tags: pro choice, Westminster, Stella Creasy, Diana Johnson, legislation, Repeal 58/59
categories: Legal
Sunday 10.21.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Northern Irish women directly affected by abortion ban tell Westminster to support reform - as MPs launch historic bill

Alliance for Choice, Belfast at the Dublin Rally for Choice, September 29th 2018. Photo: Brendan Harkin

Alliance for Choice, Belfast at the Dublin Rally for Choice, September 29th 2018. Photo: Brendan Harkin

·         As a historic bill to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland is launched in parliament, women who have been affected by the current ban have appealed to MPs for reform.

·         The testimony collected by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, bpas, and Alliance for Choice NI includes women who have been forced to continue pregnancies with no chance of survival to term

·         A video released today features a young Northern Irish woman, Emma, 18, telling MPs that abortion “is not a devolved issue” while 28 weeks pregnant with a baby with a fatal foetal anomaly. She was denied an abortion in Northern Ireland and felt unable to travel for treatment in England.

·         Other women speak of the difficulties of travelling to England to access care, and one woman from Belfast describes having to wait over three hours in an airport while bleeding.

·         Campaigners call on MPs from all parties to “listen to the voices of the women of Northern Ireland” and unite behind moves for reform.

Read more

tags: Westminster, legal, healthcare, Northern Ireland, criminal
categories: Legal
Wednesday 10.10.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

High Profile Abortion Pills Case in High Court Belfast

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Mother & Daughter abortion pills case

Judicial Review heard in Belfast today

Alliance for Choice, along with a coalition of charities including the Family Planning Association (FPA), the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas), and the Abortion Support Network (ASN) are intervening in support of the mother’s application. We are arguing that a prosecution in these circumstances makes those accessing self-induced abortion with pills unwilling to seek medical advice for fear of prosecution. While abortion medication is safe, there can be side effects; follow-up care in the rare event of serious complications, such as haemorrhage, should be able to be accessed without fearing police involvement.
 

Read more

tags: judicial review, justice, criminal, courts, abortion pills, arrest
categories: Legal
Wednesday 09.19.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Alliance for Choice have today launched #PENNYPOST

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Alliance for Choice have today launched #PENNYPOST - a social media campaign which encourages people in Northern Ireland to write to the Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, urging her to stand up for the women and pregnant people of Northern Ireland and stop their treatment as second class citizens.

Read more

tags: Westminster, letter, public, repeal, Northern Ireland, abortion, legislation
categories: Legal
Friday 08.31.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Access to abortion care for Northern Irish confirmed

Alliance for Choice are encouraged by the Irish Health Minister, Simon Harris’s commitment to ensuring that people from Northern Ireland will be able to access abortion services in the Republic.

Read more

tags: solidarity, ireland, abortion, healthcare
categories: Medical, Legal
Wednesday 08.08.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 

Can you really be jailed for an abortion in NI?

Image courtesy of Siobhán Clancy http://flatpackfeminism.blogspot.com/

Image courtesy of Siobhán Clancy http://flatpackfeminism.blogspot.com/

Can you really be jailed for an abortion in Northern Ireland?

Read more

tags: fact, abortion, legal, criminal, Northern Ireland, legislation, Westminster, courts
categories: Legal
Thursday 08.02.18
Posted by Emma Campbell
 
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