NI Executive directed to set up abortion services by March 2022
Brandon Lewis has also directed that there should be immediate support for interim services of early medical abortion.
Last updated 22nd Jul 2021
The Northern Ireland Secretary of State has issued the direction to Stormont’s Department of Health that abortion services must be commissioned in full by 31 March 2022.
Brandon Lewis started that the direction has been given to to the Department of Health, Minister of Health Robin Swann, the Health and Social Care Board, First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill.
Mr Lewis noted that abortion was a sensitive issue.
He said: “I acknowledge and respect the deeply-held views that individuals hold on this issue.'
“However, it is the clear will of Parliament that the rights of women and girls in Northern Ireland are properly upheld.''
Mr Lewis explained why the Government had created the new powers in relation to directing the commission of services.
He added: “We took this important step because a year after the 2020 Regulations were made, women and girls in Northern Ireland are still unable to access high-quality abortion and post-abortion care in Northern Ireland in all the circumstances allowed by the Regulations we made on March 31 2020. This remains the case today.''
Mr Lewis said immediate support should be provided to sustain the interim services currently being offered by the health trusts.
He warned that those services were “at risk of collapse''.
He said: “Though I recognise the huge strain that Covid-19 has placed on healthcare in Northern Ireland, I remain extremely disappointed that full commissioning proposals have not yet been brought forward by the Department of Health and that the Executive has not an opportunity to discuss them.”
Mr Lewis said it was for the Executive to find the funding necessary for the services from within the annual Treasury block grant or its own coffers.
He added: “At the heart of this matter are the women and girls in Northern Ireland, who have been, and continue to be, denied the same reproductive rights as women in the rest of the UK.
“Parliament determined that this should be corrected and by exercising the power to direct, we will ensure that it is.''
A spokesperson for the Department of Health has said:
"The Department of Health is proceeding with options to develop and cost a commissioning model for the delivery of abortion services in Northern Ireland in line with the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No.2) Regulations, and in a way that is consistent with the Health and Social Care Board’s service commissioning and delivery practice.
"Under the Ministerial Code, the service model, as developed, will then need to be referred to the Executive in due course for agreement."
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