The changes are a result of amendments to a bill in July 2019 by Labour backbench MPs Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn (who is originally from County Armagh and chair of the All–Party Parliamentary Group on Ireland and the Irish in Britain).
Creasy proposed the abortion rights amendment, which passed by 332 to 99, and McGinn put forward the equal marriage amendment, it was backed 383 to 73.
The liberalisation of abortion laws has long been a controversial subject in Northern Ireland. Yesterday, unionist parties sat in Stormont for the first time in nearly three years to prevent the changes coming into effect. This was largely symbolic as unionist parties cannot form a government without cross–community support. Sinn Féin did not attend while the SDLP walked out of the chamber in protest.
The same–sex marriage and abortion rights campaigns have been spearheaded respectively by groups such as the Love Equality coalition and Alliance for Choice.
As of midnight 21 October, an obligation has now been placed on the UK government to change the marriage and abortion laws.
Stella Creasy’s amendment means that abortion is now decriminalised in Northern Irish law and women who seek to access abortion services can no longer be prosecuted. Furthermore, it places the UK government under a duty to bring forward regulations to introduce a new legal framework for abortion in Northern Ireland by 31 March 2020.
Same–sex marriage and opposite sex civil partnership must now be legal by 13 January 2020. The first weddings are expected around Valentine’s Day.
With abortion decriminalised and same–sex marriage legalised Northern Ireland will join Ireland, which voted to legalise both in recent referenda, and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Irish in Britain raised awareness about equal marriage rights when we co–hosted a conference in November 2018 with London Irish LGBT Network entitled LGBT Equality and Ireland: Past and Present. The event was the first of its kind as speakers came together to discuss Irish LGBT migration.
You can read some of the reactions from speakers at the conference to July’s amendments on our website here.