UK government preparing to override Northern Ireland on abortion services

Northern Irish executive has not commissioned any services since terminations became legal in 2019

The UK government is taking legal steps to override the Northern Ireland executive and directly instruct the nation's health trusts to provide abortion services, saying it will take the necessary powers" to directly commission services if urgent progress is not made.

The secretary for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, set out the UK government's legislative options in strong language on Thursday, after it became increasingly clear" that the Northern Ireland Department of Health (NI DoH) will miss the end of March deadline to fully commission abortion services in the country.