Shaking up social policy

Northern Irish politics is famed for its inertia but, while much of local discourse continues its traditional tectonic speed, some areas of social policy could be ripe for change.

There is no direct relationship between marriage equality and a loosening of abortion laws but both are hot topics where the pressure for change is gathering momentum.

What link there is – and it is palpable - exists within this momentum. Many feel there is an appetite for change and that they can modernise Northern Ireland.

Groups like Amnesty International NI are working hard to make this happen, while on the other side of the debate are people like the Evangelical Alliance, urging against liberalisation.

So right now gay marriage and the right to abortion walk side by side. However, their destinations are far from clear.

Nothing is inevitable and, while people inclined towards marriage equality, expanded abortion provision or both might sense a shift in mood amongst the NI public, many others are resistant to such changes, with some even pursuing stricter laws.

Abortion

Scope will return to the other in good time but, following our recent series of articles on abortion – featuring strong arguments both for and against greater availability of such services – it is already time for an update.

Today sees the beginning of a High Court judicial review calling on legal entitlements allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or series malformation of a foetus.

Submissions will include evidence from Sarah Ewart, whose personal story made abortion a live issue in NI two years ago.

The 24-year-old’s first pregnancy was diagnosed with ancencephaly but she was refused an abortion – and she says the law is failing pregnant women.

Her case led to the Human Rights Commission pursuing this judicial review, supported by Amnesty, with a hearing set to last three days.

At the start of last week judgement was reserved in the Court of Appeal over whether women from Northern Ireland are entitled to free NHS abortions if they travel to England.

The ruling, as it stands, disallows this service – last May the High Court ruled that excluding lawful women from this service in Great Britain is lawful.

The appellant in the case was 15 when she and her mother travelled to England in October 2012 before being told they would have to pay for a private termination as she did not qualify for the NHS procedure.

Costs for travel, accommodation and the private clinic service are estimated at around £900, while the UK Department of Health states that last year 837 women from Northern Ireland travelled to GB in similar circumstances.

With a ruling likely due in the next couple of months, this court decision and the ongoing judicial review are two points on the front of a debate that could scarcely be more live – alongside arguments over draft guidelines and a recent consultation.

Pressure

The extent to which Northern Ireland lies both between and within Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland is the source of most of our politics.

But while tennis-court debates, where opponents argue that their reality is the reality and back and forth, carry on without end the effects of the more complex reality do not go away.

Marriage equality is all around us but not within. Can Northern Ireland continue to be hemmed in thus? The rest of the UK is pro choice. The RoI is traditionally more stringent on abortion than even Northern Ireland but it is a state with its own momentum and where this issue has moved right into the spotlight.

We sit between Great Britain and its liberal laws, the RoI and its social upheaval, and meanwhile the local calls for change grow louder. All of this builds pressure.

But how important is all this pressure? To the extent that Northern Ireland is its own jurisdiction – which it is, not in straightforward way, but the fact remains – then we are free to choose our own path.

The answer is that it is as important as people think it is. Such momentum is subjective and, ultimately, illusory, but that does not mean its power is not real - a point made by history, again and again.

Nothing is inevitable but right now the momentum is almost all one way.