Under the current law in England and Wales and Scotland a woman who ends her own pregnancy without the permission of doctors can be sentenced to life imprisonment. The 1967 Abortion Act regulates and allows for abortions only under special circumstances in England, Wales & Scotland. Abortion is therefore not fully decriminalised and remains illegal in Northern Ireland.
The Women’s Equality Party reaffirms its commitment to the protection and improvement of women’s reproductive rights and its support of the We Trust Women1 campaign which seeks to fully decriminalise abortion across the UK and Ireland.
The Women’s Equality Party calls upon the Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and all devolved bodies responsible for health-care:
a. To remove abortion from criminal laws so that abortion is properly part of health-care provision and regulated as clinical procedure.
b. To ensure that, after decriminalisation, a woman’s access to abortion should not be hindered, for example by the requirement that 2 doctors approve the abortion, regional variation, lack of access to home termination drugs or by religious or moral objections by a healthcare professional or provider.
WE further insist that until abortion is legal and freely available in Northern Ireland the Government shall protect the rights of women in Northern Ireland by offering them support to access health care services in England, Scotland or Wales.