The Attorney General of Northern Ireland has been granted permission to challenge the province’s abortion ‘exclusion zones’ law through a judicial review.
The Bill which would ban pro-life protests outside Northern Ireland’s abortion centres and hospitals providing abortions has consequently been delayed from becoming law, and a date for a hearing of the judicial review at the UK’s Supreme Court is awaited.
Clare Bailey of the Green Party, who lost her seat in the north’s Assembly election last week, was the architect of the controversial legislation which would render offering information on alternatives to abortion, or even praying silently outside an abortion centre, a criminal offence punishable by a hefty fine.
Ms Bailey said the Bill would set up ‘safe access zones’ at places where abortions are carried out, but the legislation was blasted as ‘draconian and discriminatory’ by pro-life organisation Precious Life, one of the groups assisting the peaceful protests.
The Bill was voted through by Stormont in March by a majority of parties, with only unionist parties the DUP and the TUV criticising and voting against the legislation. The Bill would make it an offence to protest against abortion within the zones, directly argue with or ‘harass’ people who may be seeking an abortion, or to obstruct access to the premises in question.
Now, Dame Brenda King, who is Attorney General for Northern Ireland, has asked the High Court to determine whether the Bill is in the “legislative competence” of the Stormont Assembly, in what will be seen as a blow to pro-abortion rights politicians.
The Attorney General has voiced concerns relating to the omission of what is known as the “reasonable excuse” defence from the legislation, and has asked the supreme court to consider whether this part of the legislation is “a proportionate interference with the rights of those who wish to express opposition to abortion services in Northern Ireland”.
In a statement, the Attorney General’s office said it had to be determined whether or not offences created by the bill were a “proportionate interference with the rights of those who wish to express opposition to abortion services in Northern Ireland”.
The statement also said that the Bill may be found to be incompatible with the European Convention on human rights, and therefore outside of the Assembly’s remit.
“One of the grounds on which a Bill may be found to be outside the competence of the Assembly is if it is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights”, the Attorney General’s statement read.
While the Bill may still become law, this will only be the case if the Supreme Court determines the part of the bill in question is within the assembly’s legislative competence.
In March, TUV leader and barrister, Jim Alister, who voted against the Bill alongside the DUP, proposed amending the Bill to allow for a “reasonable excuse” within the legislation.
He told the Assembly at the time: “It is overwhelmingly the case that our law provides reasonable excuse for someone accused.
“It is not about asking the assembly to define what a “reasonable excuse” is, because every case is different. It is about saying to the court, “If the defence is raised by the accused, you decide whether what they did or said was reasonable.”
While the Bill received unanimous backing from the SDLP and Sinn Fein, only 13 of 6,412 submissions to the public consultation on the issue were supportive of it.
A June 2021 poll undertaken by SavantaComRes showed that 75% of the Northern Irish population oppose the introduction of ‘buffer zones’ on specific clinics, as this Bill would permit.
In March, Precious Life slammed the Bill, stating: “Clare Bailey’s abortion zones are discriminatory as they would only target pro-life groups. Freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights – both protected under Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act.
“Clare Bailey – and other pro-abortionists in SDLP, Sinn Fein, UUP, Alliance, and PeopleBeforeProfit – are hypocrites. They demand ‘safe access’ to abortion centres, but completely ignore the reality that babies are being killed inside these centres. The ultimate safe zone for unborn babies should be in their mothers’ wombs,” the group said.