Uterhark Emily
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
J Law Health. 2020;34(1):155-189.
On July 24, 2019, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed an act that included an amendment requiring Northern Ireland to implement recommendations from the Committee on the Elimination on Discrimination Against Women. The amendment required Northern Ireland to repeal the 1861 abortion act and requires the decriminalization of abortion. The law went into effect on October 22, 2019, since the Northern Ireland power-sharing government (Stormont) did not reconvene before October 21, 2019. Since the law did go into effect, it gave women the right to obtain abortions under the CEDAW recommendations; however, when the Northern Irish government (Stormont) reconvenes, it can recriminalize abortion. They made this attempt when Stormont under DUP leadership reconvened briefly on January 11, 2020 before the official Brexit the next day. This Note argues that abortion should be legal in Northern Ireland regardless of whether the new legislation from British Parliament ever went into effect or gets overturned by the Stormont legislature because of several treaties and domestic decisions from the Supreme Court in Belfast and the new regulations made in accordance with the amendment need to meet the standards of the CEDAW recommendations.
2019年7月24日，英国议会通过了一项法案，其中包括一项修正案，要求北爱尔兰执行消除对妇女歧视委员会的建议。该修正案要求北爱尔兰废除1861年的堕胎法案，并将堕胎合法化。该法律于2019年10月22日生效，因为北爱尔兰权力分享政府（斯托蒙特）在2019年10月21日之前没有重新召开会议。由于该法律确实生效了，它赋予了妇女根据消除对妇女歧视委员会的建议获得堕胎的权利；然而，当北爱尔兰政府（斯托蒙特）重新召开会议时，它可以将堕胎重新定为犯罪。2020年1月11日，在民主统一党领导下的斯托蒙特在第二天正式脱欧之前短暂重新召开会议时，他们就进行了这样的尝试。本笔记认为堕胎在北爱尔兰应该是合法的，无论英国议会的新立法是否生效，或者是否会被斯托蒙特立法机构推翻，因为有几项条约以及贝尔法斯特最高法院做出的国内裁决，并且根据修正案制定的新规定需要符合消除对妇女歧视委员会建议的标准。
