More than 100 MPs and peers from all parties have written to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, calling for women in Northern Ireland to be allowed access to abortion services locally rather than having to come to England.
The letter, signed by 131 parliamentarians including eight Conservatives such as the former education secretary Justine Greening and the former chancellor Ken Clarke, the former Liberal leader David Steel and the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, follows a UN declaration that forcing women to travel for an abortion is an infringement of their human rights.
With the government advertising its support for women’s rights ahead of International Women’s Day on Thursday, the timing of the letter is likely to be embarrassing. The Conservatives govern in alliance with the DUP, which opposes abortion.
Abortion is allowed in Northern Ireland only if a woman’s life is at risk or there is a serious or permanent risk to her mental health. Rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities are not seen as valid reasons for termination.
Last month the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women (Cedaw) said thousands of women and girls in Northern Ireland faced “systematic violations of rights through being compelled to either travel outside Northern Ireland to procure a legal abortion or to carry their pregnancy to term”.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said the scale and cross-party nature of support for the change should force the government’s hand.
“We have heard talk of the importance of regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK but that concern does not seem to extend to the basic human right of not to be forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy,” she told the Guardian.
“The UN ruling is clear that forcing women to travel to seek an abortion is not acceptable. It’s time for all who say they support gender equality to put their votes and their voices where their marching is and back this call for progress.”
The letter, sent late on Wednesday, urges Rudd and the government to bring in legislation to allow equal access to abortion. Campaigners believe the law could be changed in the forthcoming domestic violence bill.
Women and girls in Northern Ireland can face sentences of up to life in prison for accessing a service that is provided on the NHS in England and Wales for free. The letter cites the experience of one woman given a three-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for self-inducing an abortion in 2016 because she could not afford the cost of travel to England and the expense of a private procedure. A woman being prosecuted for purchasing abortion pills for her 15-year-old daughter is currently awaiting trial.
Last year the Home Office introduced funding for women and girls from Northern Ireland to access abortion in England free of charge and to avail of a means-tested travel bursary. It is understood that between July and February, 474 people did so.
In its statement in February, Cedaw said that due to the “heavy financial, emotional and logistical burden”, travel was not always viable. Its report made 13 recommendations, including the repeal of the criminal sanction on abortion contained in the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
One of the recommendations was that terminations should be allowed in cases of sexual crime and fatal foetal abnormality and where there is a threat to a woman’s health, without “permanency” being a condition.
In a previous response to Creasy on the issue, Rudd, who added responsibility for women and equalities to her brief this year, has argued that the UN’s Istanbul convention does not distinguish between abortions close to home and further away.
