Northern Ireland set to legalize abortion, same-sex marriage
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/10/northern-ireland-set-to-legalize.html
Traditionally conservative Northern Ireland is about to legalize both
abortion and same-sex marriage, a head-snapping about-face that was
imposed on the territory by the British Parliament.
The changes, bitterly resisted by anti-abortion and church groups,
were mandated in an amendment to a routine bill on governance of
Northern Ireland that Parliament passed in July amid a power vacuum
created by the collapse of the region’s governing assembly nearly three
years ago.
The amendment will go into effect at midnight on Monday, weeks after
the High Court in Belfast rebuffed a legal challenge, ruling that
Northern Ireland’s 158-year-old abortion laws are incompatible with the
United Kingdom’s human rights commitments.
The judgment was a major victory for women’s rights activists, who
had felt left behind after the Republic of Ireland voted to legalize
abortion last year.
Although Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, and the
majority of its people say they would like abortion to be made
available, the regional power-sharing government had blocked abortion
reform before collapsing in 2017 over sectarian divides.