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The Northern Ireland High Court has today dismissed a challenge by the Society for the Prevention of Unborn Children (“SPUC”) against the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 and the Abortion Services Direction 2021: In re SPUC Pro-Life Ltd. By these enactments, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has directed the Minister for Health, amongst other things, to secure the commissioning of abortion services so that they are provided by 31 March 2022. In addition, he had directed the First Minister and deputy First Minister to include abortion-related matters brought forward by the Minister for Health, which require executive approval, on the agenda for the next meeting of the Executive Committee. SPUC challenged these enactments on various grounds, including that: (a) they were unconstitutional for purporting implicitly to amend the Northern Ireland Act 1998; (b) they were ultra vires the enabling power in the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019; and, (c) they breached Article 2(1) of the NI Protocol for violating the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, given that they sought to enforce rules allowing abortion of fetuses with severe fetal abnormalities. Colton J rejected all of these arguments. A summary of the judgment can be found here. This case follows an earlier case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, in which it was found by the High Court that the Secretary of State had breached his duty to act expeditiously in ensuring abortion services were available. Yaaser Vanderman appeared for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission as Intervener in the case. The case has been reported on BBC news and in the Belfast Telegraph. In the earlier case brought by the Human Rights Commission, David Blundell QC and Yaaser Vanderman successfully appeared for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
