Northern Ireland abortion: MPs pass bill demanding terminations legalised

Ministers including Penny Mordaunt back calls for change, raising prospect of major Cabinet row

MPs have voted in favour of legalising abortion in Northern Ireland after a number of Tory ministers broke ranks to back demands for change, creating a potential headache for Theresa May.

The House of Commons voted by 208 votes to 123 in favour of a bill introduced by Labour MP Diana Johnson that seeks to scrap 157-year-old laws that make the practice illegal.

The laws no longer affect women in England, Scotland and Wales because of changes that were made in 1967, but continue to apply in Northern Ireland.

While Ms Johnson’s bill is unlikely to become law, the vote highlights support in the Commons for bringing the law in Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK.

It is also likely to cause a major headache for Ms May, who has insisted that the controversial changes are a matter for the Northern Ireland executive.

But the backing of ministers including Penny Mordaunt, the women and equalities minister, for Ms Johnson’s bill reveals a split at the heart of government and will pile pressure on the prime minister to act.

Any move to change the law would place her firmly on a collision course with the DUP, which is propping up her government. The Northern Irish party is fiercely anti-abortion and had insisted that any changes are a matter for the devolved government.

Matters are complicated further by the fact that the Stormont assembly in Belfast has not sat since January 2017 after power-sharing collapsed.

Ms Johnson is hoping to change the law through a 10 minute rule bill, although she is likely to need government support if she is to succeed.

She told the Commons: “Abortion in our country is underpinned by the oldest legal framework for any healthcare treatment, with the harshest criminal sentence in the developed world for women having an illegal abortion.

“Our current abortion law dates back to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 – a time when Queen Victoria was on the throne and women were still decades away from getting the right to vote.”

Under that law, she said, anyone having an abortion or helping someone to do so can be sent to prison for life.

In addition to Ms Mordaunt, Home Office minister Victoria Atkins and sports minister Tracey Crouch also voted in favour of the bill, as did health minister Caroline Dinenage and transport minister Jo Johnson.

Calls for changes to the law in Northern Ireland grew louder after the Republic of Ireland voted in a referendum in May to abolish its ban on the practice.

Speaking after the Commons vote, Ms May’s official spokesman suggested Ms Johnson’s bill was unlikely to receive the government backing it will need to become law.

He said: “It is a Private Member’s Bill which will proceed in the usual Private Member’s Bill way.”

He added: “The prime minister has consistently said that abortion has always been a devolved matter for the Northern Ireland Executive and the best way forward is that this issue should be decided by locally-accountable politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly.”