“Abortion is a devolved issue, and the only legal or moral basis for the 2019 intervention by the UK Government was that there was no sitting Northern Ireland Assembly at that time. As we are all aware, that is no longer the case, and the Assembly has shown itself to be perfectly competent in developing its own legislation.

“There is no longer any justification for the UK Government to enforce the regulations. Pressing ahead, as we are doing today, is a breach of the Belfast agreement and weakens the trust and respect upon which devolution is founded…. [T]he Northern Ireland Assembly opposes the regulations. When the people of Northern Ireland were consulted on the regulations last year, 80% rejected them”.

The regulations are not just based on the false premise that they are a requirement of international law… [T]he case for the vote on 9 July 2019 was greatly strengthened by a claim that it is now clear was not true.

“The CEDAW convention, which is international law and is supposed to define the terms of reference of the CEDAW committee, does not even mention abortion, let alone define a right to it. Moreover, the CEDAW committee is not a judicial body, and it does not have standing to read in a right to abortion, as demonstrated by Professor Mark Hill, QC."

“Whatever we think about abortion itself, there is simply no democratic case for this move by the UK Government. It is a direct assault on the devolution settlement, and it risks compounding existing constitutional tensions.

“Ministers would never meddle in the affairs of the Scottish or Welsh Parliaments in this way. There would be outrage and justifiably so. So why do they feel entitled to with NI? The UK Government must allow NI’s democratically elected politicians to take decisions on behalf of her citizens.”