Northern Ireland abortion case hears traumatic experience

Press Association
Wed 30 Jan 2019 19.37 GMT

A court in Belfast has heard one woman’s traumatic experience of seeking an abortion after receiving a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality.

Sarah Ewart, 28, who was refused the procedure in Northern Ireland in 2013 owing to the region’s near blanket ban on terminations, was harangued by anti-abortion protesters and felt like “part of a conveyor belt” when she travelled to a clinic in London to end her pregnancy, the high court in Belfast heard.

Ewart said she was refused advice on how to seek a termination, and that her medical records were not sent to the clinic. She described the experience as leaving her feeling “vulnerable and humiliated”

Last year, the supreme court said Northern Ireland’s abortion laws breached human rights laws. But the ruling also stated that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), which brought that case, did not have the power to bring forward proceedings because it was not a victim of an unlawful act.

Ewart has brought an individual case to the high court in hope of securing a formal declaration that Northern Ireland is violating the European convention on human rights.

-snip-