Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023
United Kingdom legislation
The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023 (c. 1 (N.I.)) received royal assent on 6 February 2023 and creates safe access zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland with a radius of 100 metres.
History
In 2020, a report by the NI Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup protest exclusion zones.
In 2021, a majority of Northern Ireland's political parties supported protest exclusion zones.
In 2022, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted in favour of the bill. The Attorney General for Northern Ireland referred it to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that the legislation was compatible with the European Court of Human Rights - it declared that "The right of women in Northern Ireland to access abortion services has now been established in law through the processes of democracy" - and that this legal right should not be obstructed by "opponents of the legislation based, some might think ironically, on the liberal values protected by the convention".
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