R (on the application of A and B) v Secretary of State for Health (United Kingdom): what is the cost of reproductive rights?

R (on the application of A and B) v Secretary of State for Health (hereinafter A and B) was heard at the UK Supreme Court amid growing media attention paid to the prohibition on abortion in Northern Ireland (NI) and against the backdrop of the Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment in Ireland.

The Abortion Act 1967 was not extended to NI, which meant that abortion provision has always existed in something of a legal vacuum there. Rather than the framework adopted in England, Scotland and Wales that allows doctors to provide abortions if certain criteria are met, abortions could only be legally carried out in NI when there was a threat to the woman’s physical or mental health or life. This meant that there was some provision of legal abortion in NI but the vast majority of people needing an abortion were forced to travel to Great Britain to seek abortion care. The lack of guidance on when an abortion was legal meant that there was a series of cases seeking judicial clarity on the matter.