New Year’s Day marked the day that abortion services became legally available in the Republic of Ireland.

In a referendum in May last year, 66.4 per cent of voters chose to repeal the eight amendment to the constitution, which protected unborn children and permitted abortion only where the life of the mother was at stake.

Ireland’s Health Minister Simon Harris then began steering the changes through the Irish Parliament and the Irish President, Michael Higgins signed the Bill into law on the 20 December, ready for the new year.

This Bill makes abortion legal up to 12 weeks gestation.

GP’s reluctant to sign up to provide abortion

Only 4.13 per cent of GPs – 165 out of 4,000 – have signed up to provide abortion services.

Under the new system, GPs will provide abortions to women up to nine weeks pregnant and hospitals will perform terminations at between nine and 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, abortions will be allowed only in exceptional circumstances. The service will be largely free, with the state paying GPs approximately €400 per patient.

Simon Harris is also looking to fast-track legislation that would place buffer zones around abortion clinics. In England, Home Secretary Sajid Javid rejected plans to introduce buffer zones, citing that most protests were passive, involving prayer and handing out leaflets about support services. He stated that such an introduction “would not be a proportionate response.”

Mandatory cooling off period under pressure from activists

The law also introduces a three-day “cooling off” period for women requesting abortions. This time ensures that women considering an abortion has enough time to consider all the options available to her. It could also help protect against coercion.

However pro-choice groups have made clear that they are already looking to repeal this vital protection. They also are campaigning for full decriminalisation of abortion.

Northern Ireland must resist pressure to change its life affirming laws

There has been little clarification over where this leaves Northern Ireland, or if these services are going to be accessible to women from Northern Ireland.

What is expected is for more pressure to be put upon Northern Ireland to legalise abortion. Northern Ireland has already seen off countless threats to impose such legislation onto the province. The Women’s and Equalities Committee at Westminster have launched a formal inquiry into abortion law in Northern Ireland.

There are 100,000 people alive in Northern Ireland today who would not be alive had the 1967 Abortion Act been extended to Northern Ireland. In comparison, since the 1967 Abortion Act, over 9 million lives have been lost in Great Britain.

Polling undertaken in NI recently revealed that the majority of people do not believe Westminster MPs should be the ones to legislate changes to NI’s abortion laws. 93 per cent of those polled agreed that in a pregnancy, both lives matter.

CARE’s Chief Executive Nola Leach said:

"Northern Ireland’s current laws on abortion are framed in a way which provides the best possible outcome for both the mother and the child. It provides robust support for the unborn child and we must not seek to undermine that vital protection.

“The democratically elected Northern Ireland Assembly have consistently – and as recently as 2016 through a majority vote across the political parties based in Northern Ireland – chosen to uphold the current laws on abortion. This is a more recent consideration than has taken place in any other parliament in the United Kingdom.”

CARE in NI Director Tim Martin concludes:

“It is vital the Assembly is re-formed as soon as possible because as our recent polling demonstrates, the clear majority of people in NI do not want MPs at Westminster to intervene by changing our laws.”

Find out more

Read more about our work on abortion here.