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THE UK GOVERNMENT has said that it will provide free abortion services in England to women travelling from Northern Ireland.
In the House of Commons today, Equalities Minister Justine Greening said that procedures will be free at the point of delivery on the NHS and that travel and accommodation costs would be covered for women on incomes of less than £15,276.
The scheme is due to be in place by the end of 2017 and Greening also said there would be a central telephone booking system through which an appointment can be arranged with a healthcare professional in England.
Greening said that this will be “comparable to the service that women in England receive”.
She said: “The central booking services will be operational before the end of the year. In the meantime women from Northern Ireland will continue to make their own arrangements with the providers, but will not be charged.”
Northern Ireland has strict laws around abortion. It is only permitted in the country if a woman’s life is at risk or if there is permanent of serious risk to her mental or physical health.
According to the latest figures from the UK government, 724 women from Northern Ireland had abortions in England or Wales in 2016. It also said that 3,265 women from the Republic of Ireland accessed abortion services in England or Wales.
Labour MP Stella Creasy said the new scheme was a “step forward” for women in Northern Ireland.
stellacreasy / TwitterGovt now set out how will meet pledge 2 help NI women with abortions & includes travel costs -see change is possible if you fight for it! 🤜🤛 https://t.co/l46FnqUDCc
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) October 23, 2017
In June, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal overturned a ruling which found that the country’s abortion laws were in breach of European human rights law.
In 2015, the High Court ruled that Northern Ireland was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights by its failure to allow for abortion in cases of rape or fatal foetal abnormality.
This year, however, a three judge panel allowed an appeal to overturn the High Court’s decision.
It ruled that it was not up to the courts or local government to decide on abortion, but rather the national government.
The Supreme Court will begin hearing a case tomorrow, with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission seeking to overturn the restrictions on abortion in the country on the grounds that the laws breach human rights.
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Pro lifers don’t care about existing life condemned to poverty & homeless in this country
@Salvatore Mazzani: Eight Amendment is not a solution for unwanted pregnancies
@Salvatore Mazzani: Pro lifers won’t build poor existing life especially lone parents and their kids the council houses they need. Pro lifers in FG also won’t give grananteed income to lone parents instead always threatening to cut them off even though the constitution says no woman should gave to leave their home for income reasons. FG & FF & all other pro lifers are pro birth as they only care about the unborn til the cord is cut and then they are considered welfare and housing burdens by Leo and FG because they “don’t get up early enough”
@Salvatore Mazzani: abortion can be a necessary consequence of homelessness or the threat of homelessness.
@Salvatore Mazzani: What do you and your several previous aliases know about pregnancy and/or homelessness?
@Salvatore Mazzani: You cannot accept your pro life hypocritical slogan. Ye shoud be outside every abortion clinic in Europe. Why don’t ye tell an English,French German ,Polish etc women what to do? Ye wouldn’t dare, but ye let the well off Irish travel for abortion and then condemn poor Irish women and refugees who want an abortion to homelessness as ye are right wing economically too.
@Salvatore Mazzani: is that your best reasoning, that you think that someone is supposedly talking through their hat, when they are actually expressing a valid viewpoint ?
@Salvatore Mazzani: Youth Defence Troll.
Do yourself and tony daly genuinely not get fed up peddling your pro abortion crap? It’s a full time job for the pair of you. Either RCC thrashing or abusing anybody and everybody with opposing views. The pair of you should meet up! Or get a hobby
I refer to you daisy. Obviously
@Caz 17: did it take you long to come up with that sophisticated argument which represents the zenith of anti choice “reasoning”. You are a wonderful advertisement for the anti-choice side, the very best that they can produce.
Fiona/tony, its Ike you are on auto text. Standard crap. It’s back to my original point. Reactive to everything that’s not your in agreement with obscured views. Do you do anything but troll this site? Do you sleep? Are you even awake when you post? That might explain some of your contributions.
@Jay Lane: You think the pro-lifers are bad? There are paediatricians all across the world saving the lives of children and then just walking away leaving the parents to pick up the tab for both the care and the ongoing cost of feeding, sheltering and educating the children!
@Caz 17: but you post no comment of even minimal substance. You are a pro life pawn.
@Caz 17: easy now Tony is pro choice not pro abortion (lol).
But in fairness to Tony the opening post of this thread is bordering on the ridiculous. I think the 20% fringes on both sides are running out of road
@Jay Lane: who are these pro lifers you speak of? 20% of the population- that crowd?
@lavbeer: ah there you are. Now perhaps you could answer the questions from yesterday after you said you supported abortion to a limit. In which scenarios do you support abortion? And what limit would you place on abortion?
You seemed to disappear yesterday and I know you would like to confirm your support for choice.
@lavbeer: and you are pro abortion, seeing abortion as both desirable and trivial.
Most pro choice supporters respectbthe autonomous right of the pregnant woman to make her own decision according to her own circumstances but we don’t advocate on the desirability of abortion. The pro abortion supporters such as try to undermine those who support freedom of choice and the primacy of the position of the pregnant woman.
@Paul Fahey: answered the this evening for you Paul. But no need to go back. 12 weeks in my view / constitutional protection after that unless medical need. Limited abortion.
@Paul Fahey: choice is a fluffy term. You either are happy with abortion or not. That’s my view anyway.
@Salvatore Mazzani: abortion is not the solution to homelessness, but unwanted pregnancies can push a woman on the brink of homelessness!!
@Annette: yes, try to rent at the moment if you are a sole parent with a young baby or even a married couple with a you g baby. Many landlords will get rid of tenants who have babies.
@Jay Lane: Never heard such rubbish.
@andrew: what about the rights of the unborn child? Don’t they deserve a chance at life? Who speaks for them? The unborn’s child’s parents ha a choice, they chose to have unprotected sex. Now this child has to die because it is inconvenient to the parents, that isn’t right at all.
I agree with others that it is hypocritical to care about the unborn but to disavow responsibility once they are born, I care about every child unborn or not.
I see no reason for abortion to exist when the morning after pill exists.
@Daniel Doran: there is no such thing as an unborn child. It is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. A child is not unborn and the so called “unborn”is not a child.
The morning after pill only works if there is an awareness of conception. Then there is a window to use abortfacient tablets whilst the foetus is undeveloped.
@Fiona deFreyne / Tony / Alias r Us: How about we go for unborn human. Would that suit you better? Or are you of the belief that we don’t know the species of the foetus until it is born? To my knowledge, a human woman has only ever given birth to a human child. I would be grateful if you could let me know if you are aware of any situation to the contrary.
@Gene Guider: The truth hurts ye so called pro lifers.
@Andrew Eager: What utter nonsense that you come out with.Of course,it’s a human embryo inside of the human being..Ffs,it’s hardly a bloody donkey in there….Fiona is sticking to medical & scientific facts & this is something that you antis just cannot handle..Example -Rónán Mullen..
@Daniel Doran: new account,but same sh!t talk..
Good. At least they’ll go somewhere regulated and get the level of care they need. Whatever your stance on the issue is, people are going to cross the Irish Sea for the procedure anyway.
@Simon O’Connor: well said. Better that the abortion is performed in a timely way, safely and without threat to the life or health of the pregnant woman.
@Fiona deFreyne: “If you don’t support legal abortion, then you support illegal abortion.”.
Better that women and girls are looked after by professionals, rather than resorting to coat hangers or knitting needles.
@DaisyChainsaw: exactly so. Back street unsterile abortions thrive when there there is no lawful alternative. This is why most anti choice supporters have no objection to the safety valve of safe and sterile abortions outside of Ireland.
@Fiona deFreyne: I do hope that those kind of abortions are a thing of the past,mainly due to the availability of the abortion pills,online…
@West Cork Lad: actually, the pills are now more and more frequent if the pregnancy is spotted early enough. The problem is the inability for this to be supervised in Ireland due to religious dogma having the force of law.
@Fiona deFreyne: one of the reasons I would vote for a 12 week limit if above that is protected by the constitution. I like the idea of publishing the law and linking it to a constitutional amendment as one of the options.
@lavbeer: you are in that small minority which is pro abortion according to what you personally want. You want the Constitution to impose your will and your choice but I prefer it to be the pregnant woman’s choice according to her own circumstances.
You are pro abortion. I am pro choice.
@Fiona deFreyne: don’t let the guilt get to you Tony.
@lavbeer: you never make real points of substance, never a honest and sincere exposition of position, never a decent, objective and consistent outline of position. You are content with jibes, oblique and counter points.
You don’t imitate comments, you just swoop in making a few mischievous and malicious points, pretend a position and then avoid any substantive discussion.
Engaging with you is a waste of time because you have nothing to contribute. You waste your own time but, worse than that, you waste the time of others.
Meanwhile down south….
@Rochelle: …our country fails to provide proper medical care for women,
@Rochelle: if you are not too poor, too young, too dependent or too dangerously ill, there is the option of a paid for abortion in England or , if soon enough, the two pills option in Ireland without medical supervision.
Foetuses in Ireland are very important; pregnant women not so much so.
@Fiona deFreyne: indeed you are very much correct.
If the pro-life crowd really cared about the fetus like they claim they’d be lobbying the government to charge women if they attempt to or return from having an abortion.
They know such an idea will cause massive backlash so they’ll never do it.
Until then they are happy for women to travel for abortions…all 4,500 a year that we have failed!
We’d be a better country if we provided proper medical care to women and gave them the support and care they need in cases where an abortion is needed in this country, until then we are failing women.
@Barry Somers: The 8th amendment doesn’t stop Irish abortions. If the referendum fails next year, it still won’t stop Irish abortions and there’ll be 12 women and girls a day travelling to the UK for their Irish abortion. The so called “prolife”, NIMBY, hypocrites are okay with the UK doing our work for us. If they were serious about being “prolife” and anti abortion, they would be campaigning to repeal the 13th amendment, but won’t touch it because it will mean females between 11 and 55 will have to be tested before they’re given permission to leave the country.
They’re not serious about being “prolife”, they’re just pro controlling women.
@Barry Somers: respect to you for expressing that truth.
If abortion is to be and to remain criminal in Ireland it would be consistent to make it criminal for Irish women to have abortions in Britain. There is nothing legally to prevent abortion being declared to be criminal in Britain but, of course, as you say, that would create a massive backlash.
@DaisyChainsaw: you have correctly identified the double standards and hypocrisy in the so called “pro-life” position. Abortion is okay as long as it takes place abroad.
@Fiona deFreyne: They’re extremely happy to see poor people go the full term with a pregnancy that has been diagnosed with a FFA..
@West Cork Lad: it feeds their moral self indulgence.
the uk has no problem murdering the irish, no surprise there
@Joe Eugene Smith: well that truly is a very strange mindset that you exhibit. With a mindset like that you cannot be reasoned with.
@Joe Eugene Smith: Words fail me, you’re a joke of a human being.
What’s the difference between an Irish woman in the north and an Irish woman in the south?
@dangermouse: usually (but not always) British citizenship.
@dangermouse: one has freedom to choose, the recogntion of that right and the support that should go with it. The other doesn’t.
@Karen Wellington: so irish women with national and republican leanings who refuse to get a British passport are exempt?
@dangermouse: I went to the trouble of qualifying that statement, perhaps you’d like to take a second pass at it…..
@dangermouse: Those in the North help fund the NHS.
One receives an abortion paid for by public funds if she is eligible.
The other is denied the opportunity of a publicly funded abortion and must gather up the funds for medical, travel and accommodation costs if well enough and not too poor to travel for the abortion.
@dangermouse: No. They’ll have NHS and social security numbers that will identify them as entitled to treatment. Not everyone in the UK is British, but their residence and tax status entitles them to NHS care
This is an interesting conundrum posed by an online commentator in relation to the pro conception it’s who imagine that at the moment of conception a fully fledged human person is immediately generated.
A clinic is on fire. There is the option of either saving the life of a 3 year old girl in one room or a jar containing 1,000 human embyroes in another room. You can only save one. Which receives your priority?
@Fiona deFreyne: they hate that question.
Just like they hate the question of why they don’t lobby for women to be charged for traveling for abortions.
@Barry Somers: or even mere conspiracy to have an abortion abroad.
@Fiona deFreyne: why is something so simple a conundrum exactly? I see you didn’t produce any links on our discussion last night. No surprise
@lavbeer: is that your answer, save neither and just search for links?
@lavbeer: and you provided a link you clearly did not read. You stated one of the most respected medical professionals in the country should be stood down, because 11 church or pro life affiliated individuals disagreed with him on abortion and the Savita case.
@lavbeer: distraction and obscurantism are your approach. You always slip slide away touting that you are pro abortion.
@Paul Fahey: you are right – I meant to post the link to the letter itself.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/savita-halappanavar-inquest-1.1378062?mode=amp
@Fiona deFreyne: still waiting for you to send a link from last night. My comments are consistent.
@Karen Wellington: err no.
@Paul Fahey: interestingly you accept one opinion and disregard the other. I merely acknowledge differing opinions. Anyway goodnight to you.
@lavbeer: typically evasive, elusive and impotent.
Sterilise them while your at it
@Flip off: Sterilise them how?
have your say