Northern Ireland under pressure after historic abortion vote

[Nirish guy]

The hypocrisy involved becomes blatantly clear if the father decides to abort then he can be charged with a serious crime ...but not the female host should it decide to do so.

You're obviously totally unaware of the law as it stands in both Ireland (soon to be changed due to their referendum) and that STILL exists as is here in Northern Ireland in that the mother CAN absolutely be charged with a CRIMINAL offence simply for having an abortion "here' * even if she could get one which she cant legally).

This is a stance that the fully supported by the DUP (the DUP being the party who are currently propping up the current UK Government - for now).

[scottish-guy]

NIrish, you are of course 100% correct as you ought to be - living there!!

However what I fail to understand is this: If a pregant woman in NI wants to facilitate an abortion (a CRIMINAL offence as you say) she simply goes to the mainland and avails of the facilities there, right? My point is - why is she not charged with said criminal offence when she returns?

If I compare it to sex tourism - if you do something abroad or on holiday which would be deemed a criminal offence at home then should the authorities find out about it you are absolutely liable to prosecution on your return.

It makes even less sense when you consider that if you misbehave in that manner on holiday then there is rarely Hard (no pun intended) evidence of it, but in the case of an abortion it is all recorded.

Other than the blatant hypocrisy and sheer NIMBYism of the DUP "We'll keep it illegal here but if you nip over the other side of the water for it we'll turn a blind eye" - is there any legal reason for this anomaly that you know of?

[latintopxxx]

scotty...wakey wakey...in some countries crimes, including those of a sexual nature, can and have been prosecuted upon returning home.

[scottish-guy]

That was my entire fucking point!

In between wanking off over your entirely imaginary/heavily embellished escapades, can you please try to keep up

... if you do something abroad or on holiday which would be deemed a criminal offence at home then should the authorities find out about it you are absolutely liable to prosecution on your return...

[Nirish guy]

However what I fail to understand is this: If a pregant woman in NI wants to facilitate an abortion (a CRIMINAL offence as you say) she simply goes to the mainland and avails of the facilities there, right? My point is - why is she not charged with said criminal offence when she returns?

The honest answer to that is I don't know and I have to admit to asking myself the same question as I typed my previous post. I "think" that is the whole point of the campaign to marry up the law as it IS a total anomaly and one that makes absolutely no sense.

I know just last week at a recent protest here last week a few woman purposefully digested "abortion pills" to in order to end their pregnancies in front of the press and in front of a senior police man ( I very much doubt they were either pregnant and nor were they eating anything stronger than paracetamol btw hopefully !) but their goal was to attempt to get arrested to force a court case - and interestingly the police officer declined their invite to arrest and simply cautioned them for the "offence".

So, even THAT shows the law up to be an ass and totally unworkable - which I'm guessing why if a woman goes to England ( where it is legal to have an abortion) then no one here either wants or has the time or inclination to prosectute afterwards.

Saying that there was a woman prosectuted just last year for giving abortion pills to her daughter, but the daughter was 15 so I'm guessing it was more to do with that then the actual act of assisting in general perhaps - but my point is that she WAS reported by her GP and a prosectution did follow. however the case was challenged by human rights groups and leave to appeal was granted. Likewise the Prosectution Service here in N.I confirmed just a few weeks ago and (for the first time) that they will now not seek to prosecute any medical professionals who give out information or advice on travelling to England for terminations. So it seems that just about everyone has realised that the law is now unworkable hence the calls for it to be changed.

That's the best answer I can muster on that one as it doesn't really make any sense to me either and is why I think women here are asking that the law be amended to stop them becoming on paper "criminals".