Meanwhile, back in the 1800s....

[noddingoff]

The Court of Appeal are considering the case of a 15 year girl from Northern Ireland and her mum, who had to scrape up £900 (with charity help) for a private abortion in England as the NHS doesn't pay for the 2000+ abortions NI exports to the mainland every year.
High Court says devolutionary powers (so the rules made by the DUP and pals....when Stormont can agree on sodding anything) have to be considered.

What has she been charged with?

She hasn't been charged with anything. She is taking her case to the Court because she couldn't access an abortion on the NHS. Her and her mum went to the High court last year but it ruled that devolutionary powers had to be taken into account, so they have appealed to the Supreme Court - judgement is reserved at the minute.

Here is the BBC article.

Apparently: "As Northern Ireland is not covered by the 1967 Abortion Act, which applies in the rest of the UK, the judge ruled this was not a discrimination issue."

Yeah it isn't a discrimination issue for men.

Well exactly TBR. It's ridiculous.

The girl’s case at the High Court WASNT that it was discriminatory that she couldn't obtain an abortion in NI – her case was that the Primary Care Trust in England was discriminating against her for insisting she paid for their service. She argued it should have provided her with an abortion service free of charge.

The argument put up by the PCT was that it could ONLY provide this free service to those registered in practices in the PCT area or those normal resident in the area. There was no procedural obstacle to her having an abortion at the clinic – only she had to pay for it. In this - she was no different to any body else outside of the area. – such as those from other parts of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, I see the point. I can't sue the NHS because I don't qualify for free prescriptions (not living in Scotland or Wales) - the 'postcode lottery' determines my entitlement to care.

I think the fact that the Abortion Act (like the marriage equality legislation) doesn't cover NI should be challenged but I don't see that coming at it via the NHS is particularly helpful.

Whilst I agree with what you are saying tribpot about the specifics of this case with regards suing the NHS, the consequences of that are disproportionally affecting women when it comes to abortion (in fact it only affects women). And that's what is discriminatory.

Added to the fact that these women are in this situation at all is discriminatory. The whole lot is discriminatory.

It is unbelievable that this is allowed to continue in this country.

But the NHS in NI can't offer illegal treatments and the NHS in England isn't funded for this work. The law is discriminatory for sure but it's the law which needs to change. An interesting way of tackling it might be to make it legal to refer NI women for abortions - then existing arrangements for funding (what used to be called) out of area treatments might apply.

I would imagine this is not a case they expect to win on the facts and the law, it is a case brought to highlight the inequitable situation in NI.

yy Yonic, I expect you are right

The postcode lottery outside NI is just how they cheese to soend limited funds in each country.
Wales doesn't ban say appendectomies because the Welsh sky fairy thinks the appendix is holy.

The NI Human Rights Commission have gone to court, in Belfast, for the right to abortion in the case of rape, incest and serious health grounds.
The UK is probably going to end up at the European Court of Human Rights yet again over NI.

Compensation for Human Rights violations, such as deliberate discrimination against a particular group, comes from central government budget.

There are different laws in Scotland and England and Wales. For example if you are a tenant in a private rented house in Scotland you have better rights than in England. If you want to sue for defamation if you win you will get higher damages in England. You cannot be convicted in Scotland solely on the basis of your own confession.

These differences obviously apply to everyone in the jurisdiction regardless of their sex. You have less rights as a private sector tenant in England because you live in England, your sex, ethnic origin, faith etc are irrelevant.

In the case of abortion the law in NI is treating one sex in one part of the UK less favourably than that sex in the rest of the UK. To me it seems discriminatory.