Swann urged to provide for remote abortion care

NI Health Minister Robin Swann

Mark Bain

Pro-choice campaigners have piled pressure on the Health Minister to immediately implement abortion care recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

An open letter was sent to Robin Swann yesterday by 69 groups and individuals, including Alliance for Choice, Amnesty International, several MLAs and health professionals,

They are calling for the urgent provision of telemedicine - caring for patients remotely using technology - for abortion here similar to that commissioned in the Republic, England, Wales and Scotland since March. Since April this year more than 150 local women have had to use the central booking system of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and have been forced to travel to Britain in order to access the care they require.

The campaigners said that in June WHO recommended that abortion provision in the global pandemic should "minimise facility visits and provider-client contacts through the use of telemedicine and self-management approaches, when applicable, ensuring access to a trained provider if needed".

"Abortion telemedicine has been available throughout all of the UK and Ireland since the onset of the pandemic, yet Northern Ireland remains the only place where a safe, cost-effective and practical method of abortion care has been denied to individuals seeking abortions," they wrote.

"In the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic, women and pregnant people who need abortions should not be forced to make unnecessary journeys of any sort, either within Northern Ireland or to England."

They urged the Department of Health to provide the service "without any further delay".

Among those to sign the letter were Sinn Fein, Alliance MP Stephen Farry, union Unite and Rape Crisis NI.

The Department of Health said it is not required to commission the relevant services, although "registered medical professionals in Northern Ireland may now terminate pregnancies lawfully".

"The regulations require such terminations to be carried out on Health and Social Care premises. This advice was communicated to Trusts in April," it added.

It said decisions "for the Executive and Assembly, as well as the department, remain to be taken on commissioning abortion services after a public consultation".