U.K. top court criticizes Northern Ireland abortion law but dismisses legal challenge

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdomsaid Thursday that Northern Ireland's strictabortion law was incompatible with the European Convention onHuman Rights, but added it did not have the powers to make aformal declaration that the law should be changed.

British-ruled Northern Ireland is left as the only part ofBritain or Ireland with such a restrictive regime, after voters in the Irish republic backed the removal of a ban in a landslidevote last month that sparked calls for change in the North.

Abortion rights activists called the court's ruling on thelaw's incompatibility a "landmark decision" that would put pressure on the British government to act, while anti-abortiongroups emphasized there was no requirement to do so.

The court does not have jurisdiction to make a declaration of incompatibility [with human rights law] in this case.- U.K. Supreme Court

Four out of seven Supreme Court justices who considered theissue found that the North's current law, which bans abortionexcept when a mother's life is at risk, was incompatible withthe European Convention on Human Rights.

However, a different four of the seven ruled that theNorthern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which had initiated legal proceedings to try to liberalize the law, did not have theright to bring the case.

"As such, the court does not have jurisdiction to make adeclaration of incompatibility [with human rights law]in this case," the court said in a summary of the decision.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission had argued thatthe law should be changed to allow abortions in cases wherepregnancies were the result of rape or incest, or in caseswhere the fetus had a fatal abnormality.

'Landmark decision'

The commission welcomed the court's opinion that the law wasincompatible with the European Convention, but said it wasdisappointed in the ruling that it did not have sufficientpowers to take the case.

Other campaigners joined the commission in calling on theBritish government to act without delay.

"This is a landmark decision that I hope will lead tochanges that will improve the lives of women in Northern Ireland and the care they receive. Change on this is needed and needednow," Breedagh Hughes, Royal College of Midwives Director forNorthern Ireland, said in a statement.

A Northern Irish woman gave evidence to the Supreme Courtabout having to travel abroad for a termination after being toldher baby could not survive. Sarah Ewart said she intended totake a case to Belfast's High Court to seek the declaration ofincompatibility the commission was unable to obtain.

Northern Ireland's elected assembly has the authority todecide on any changes to its abortion laws. It voted against legislating in cases of fatal fetal abnormality and rape inFebruary 2016 and the assembly has not sat since the devolvedgovernment collapsed in January 2017.

Britain's Northern Ireland minister has said she would likethe law to be changed, but that the matter should be decided bylocal politicians. The two main parties, which have been unableto restore the province's power-sharing government, are alsodivided on the issue of abortion.

The main nationalist party, Sinn Fein, backs calls for somechange in the law. It said the court's dismissal was on a technicality and its judgment made clear that the status quowas untenable when it came to cases of fatal fetal abnormalityand rape.

However, a lawmaker from the the main Unionist party, whichopposes liberalizing abortion law and also props up the minorityBritish government in London, said he was "delighted with thedecision."

"Had it gone the wrong way, Northern Ireland would have facedabortion on demand," the Democratic Unionist Party's Jim Wellstold Reuters.