INCREASING pressure over Northern Ireland’s abortion laws, in the wake of last week’s referendum in the Republic, could see Theresa May forced to choose between proving her feminism or remaining Prime Minister.
Yesterday, Labour’s Shami Chakrabarti said the Tory leader needed, “to negotiate with the parties in Northern Ireland and then to legislate without further delay”.
Chakrabarti said: “I think that Theresa May, really as a self-identifying feminist, needs to say ‘Yes, I unveil statues of suffragists in Parliament Square, but the test of my feminism will be whether I guarantee fundamental human rights for women.’”
But the socially conservative, evangelical Christian, DUP, whose 10 MPs prop up the minority Tory Government in the Commons, explicitly threatened to force the Prime Minister out of office if she tried to liberalise Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws.
The party’s chairman, Maurice Morrow, told the Belfast Telegraph: “If she allowed the Tory party to have a free vote on this then she would have to accept the consequences. I think it is something she would regret. But it is not something I think she has any intention of doing. Why would she risk losing the support of the DUP? She would not be foolish enough to do that.”
Abortion in Northern Ireland is only permitted if a woman’s life is at risk or there is a permanent or serious risk to her mental or physical health.
Downing Street said it was not for the UK Government to legislate: “The people of Northern Ireland are entitled to their own process, which is run by locally elected politicians.
“Our focus is restoring a democratically accountable devolved government in Northern Ireland so that locally accountable politicians can make decisions on behalf of the public they represent.”
Labour backbencher Stella Creasy, who has led the campaign said this argument didn’t stand up to scrutiny. She has proposed amendments to a forthcoming domestic violence bill.
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