UK: A Struggle in Human Rights
Design produced and owned by Davis Political Review’s Graphic Designer Cozette Ellis
Abortion and same-sex marriage were legalized in Northern Ireland on 21 October 2019. Abortion services are set to be in line with UK services by April 2020, meaning that access to abortion will be nominal until then. Northern Ireland lags behind the UK six years in legalizing same-sex marriage as well, and decades in legalizing abortion opposed to the 1967 Abortion Act
The Republic of Ireland, a state indepdendent from Nothern Ireland of the UK, legalized abortion in May of 2018, though it still remains difficult to access for a variety of reasons including stigma and the refusal of medical professionals to comply with the law. With abortion having been legal for over a year now in the Republic, and little improvement in access, it can be assumed that access to abortion in Northern Ireland will remain extremely limited. Compared to the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland lags in implementing reproductive rights for its people. According to Irish Times contributor Laura Kennedy, there exists a considerable difference in access to reproductive health care against people of different UK countries: “Though my government doesn’t yet recognise it, my body is mine alone. I am the only person who should set the standard for its treatment. If I were English, Welsh or Scottish, I would have that right already. Irish women have quite literally paid the price for their bodily autonomy in blood. Enough.”
Northern Ireland claims a UK identity but fails to implement the same reproductive and marital rights as the rest of the country. This failure to address important human rights issues has brought a new rise to Unionist and Democratic Unionist Party opposition and more conflict to Northern Ireland in 2019, where paramilitary activity is already rising. Theresa May’s 2017 supply deal with the DUP already placed the UK in danger of violating the political neutrality restrictions of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. This agreement was seen as an end to the Troubles, or the state of constant street warfare that erupted between nationist aligned Catholics and UK aligned Protestants. The deal called for power sharing between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the end of direct rule by Britain, and an end to policies or deals that benefit one group over the other. In supporting the DUP, a major advocate for restrictive abortion laws and restrictions on queer rights, the UK continues to politically and financially support a portion of its own jurisdiction that is non-compliant on issues of human rights. The UK and Unionist aligned parties of Northern Ireland government continue to claim the states membership to the UK, but fail to comply with the basic human rights provided to the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Legalizing same-sex marriage has long been fought against by DUP leaders and across the political spectrum in Northern, queer people in NI expeience higher levels of violence and harassment because of this hostile attiutude towards the queer community. While abortion is decriminalized in Northern Ireland, and same-sex marriage is legalized, NI has a long way to go in implementing these rights. Part of a right to choice is the right to access, and without access, people in Northern Ireland do not have reproductive freedom. The shame surrounding abortion and same-sex marriage in the Northern Ireland governmnet perpetuates the culture that allows reproductive rights and equality to be purposely neglected.