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Explaining gender equality difference in a devolved system: The case of abortion law in Northern Ireland

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British Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Northern Ireland is the only region of the United Kingdom (UK) in which the Abortion Act of 1967 does not apply. Since the Abortion Act, little action has been taken from national government to address this discrepancy in the province. Furthermore, as the constitutional makeup of the UK has evolved in the wake of devolution, Northern Irish exceptionalism with regard to abortion has only increased. While abortion legislation was retained at Westminster for Wales and Scotland, Northern Ireland was allowed to remain exempt from the 1967 Act and to legislate on termination of pregnancy at the devolved level. Working within a feminist institutionalist framework, this article asks why this remains the case and considers Northern Ireland’s limited place in national political discussion at Westminster since devolution. As such, it draws on and contributes to the developing literature on gender, devolution and multi-level governance. It argues that abortion in Northern Ireland has largely been understood at Westminster as a regional, devolved issue rather than an issue of women’s rights, and that the multiple political spaces now offered via devolution have not provided a greater number of venues for the promotion of more liberal abortion laws.

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Notes

  1. This was generally taken to be the 28th week of pregnancy although there is no specific legal precedent for this.

  2. Assembly debate at archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports/000620.htm, accessed 19 January 2015.

  3. Assembly debate at archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2007/071022.htm#7, accessed 19 January 2015.

  4. Private interview with the author, October 2013.

  5. Policing and justice powers were devolved to Northern Ireland in the wake of the 2010 Hillsborough Agreement.

  6. Pro-choice activist, Belfast, private interview with the author, February 2014.

  7. The DUP are currently the only party in Northern Ireland to take a clear party position against abortion in their literature. Their manifesto states that the DUP ‘advocates the right to life of the unborn child’ and their ‘Policies’ section of their website states that the party will ‘Oppose extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland’. dev.mydup.com/images/uploads/publications/DUP_A5_60pp_Manifesto_72dpi.pdf, www.mydup.com/policies/a-healthier-ni, accessed 22 December 2014.

  8. ‘Legalise abortion in Northern Ireland’, The Observer, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/19/legalise-abortion-northernireland-labour, accessed 13 November 2014; Prince and Beckford (2008). See also Northern Ireland Devolution Monitoring Report 2009: Wilford, Rick and Robin Wilson (eds.), The Northern Ireland Monitoring Devolution Report, UCL Constitution Unit, 2009, www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/research-archive/ni09.pdf, accessed 24 December 2014.

  9. Address by Margaret Ward at the roundtable on gender and security: ‘Involving women: A key issue in security and peace reconstruction’. Vienna, 11 March 2009, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, www.osce.org/gender/36863, accessed 13 November 2014.

  10. Pro-choice activist, Belfast, private interview with the author, February 2014.

  11. Pro-choice activist, Belfast, private interview with the author, March 2014.

  12. Pro-choice activist, Belfast, private interview with the author, March 2014.

  13. www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/01/03/uk-government-refuses-to-repeal-northern-ireland-gay-blood-ban/, accessed 17 March 2015.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J500124/1].

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  1. School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Jennifer Thomson

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Correspondence to Jennifer Thomson.

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Thomson, J. Explaining gender equality difference in a devolved system: The case of abortion law in Northern Ireland. Br Polit 11, 371–388 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2015.47

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