Northern Ireland abortion laws violate women’s rights, says UN body

File photo: Women gather in Parliament Square for a protest in support of legal abortion in Northern Ireland, and against a Tory coalition with the DUP, in central London

The United Kingdom violates women’s rights in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion, a report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said on Friday.

“Denial of abortion and criminalisation of abortion amounts to discrimination against women because it is a denial of a service that only women need. And it puts women in horrific situations,” the committee’s vice-chairwoman, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, said in a statement.