NI GPs want clarification on abortion legislation

Almost 80 per cent of GPs in Northern Ireland believe there should be clarification of abortion legislation, a survey by Marie Stopes International has found.

As part of a UK-wide survey, the international family planning agency surveyed over 10 per cent of the North's 1,300 GPs.

Carried out over the past year, it finds 78 per cent of doctors believe the legal situation in the North should be clarified, while 22 per cent believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

It further finds 41 per cent of doctors have or would refer women to British clinics for abortion, and that 45.5 per cent consider themselves pro-choice.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where abortion is not available under the provisions of the 1967 Abortion Act. Though abortion is technically legal there, confusion over the absolute right to abortion, and doctors' individual decisions, mean the vast majority of women wishing to end their pregnancy must travel to Britain. Almost 1,800 travelled last year.

The Royal College of General Practitioners welcomed the study, General Practitioners: Attitudes to Abortion, calling it a "serious attempt to supply . . . information" on GPs and terminations of pregnancy.

Commenting on the study, Dr Brian Patterson, chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee in Northern Ireland, said it was up to the public and not the medical profession to decide if pressure should be put on government to extend the 1967 Act to Northern Ireland. He also said doctors in Northern Ireland could not refer women to Britain for abortion.

The Northern Irish Department of Health has said that it is up to the individual woman's doctor to decide whether or not she should have an abortion.

However, the legal situation in the North is such that in 1993 a British government committee concluded: "The law is so unclear it violates the common standards of international human rights."

Ms Betty Gibson, leader of Northern Ireland's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said there was no need for any change to the law in Northern Ireland.