A SENIOR Northern Ireland midwife has admitted taking part in illegal abortions and believes most terminations now carried out in the province are “criminal acts”.

Breda Hughes has called for guidelines to be published clarifying Northern Ireland’s abortion law, which dates back to 1861 and takes no account of modern screening procedures.

Tomorrow the Court of Appeal in Belfast will hear a case in which the Family Planning Association (FPA) will seek clear guidance on when an abortion can be performed in the province.

The FPA’s initial case was rejected in the High Court last July. Opponents say the guidelines will be used to make it easier to get a termination.

Hughes is the secretary of the Northern Ireland branch of the Royal College of Midwives, a representative body, and has 17 years of clinical experience as a midwife. “I was aware that they were illegal, as are the midwives now,” she said.

About 70 abortions are carried out in Northern Ireland each year and at least 1,400 women with addresses in the province have pregnancies terminated at private clinics in Britain. The most common reason for abortions performed in Northern Ireland is foetal abnormality.

According to Hughes, abortions are most commonly offered when serious conditions such as Down’s syndrome, Potter’s syndrome (which results in stillbirth ) and spina bifida are detected, or when a foetus is found to be carrying a genetic disorder such as muscular dystrophy.

Last night Liam Gibson, the Northern Ireland representative of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, which opposes abortion in all cases and will be represented in court tomorrow, said: “Eugenic abortion carried out when an abnormality is detected is illegal in Northern Ireland. The fact that they might go on doesn’t mean they are legal.”

He believes that, although the law prohibits such abortions, a court would be unwilling to convict an obstetrician for carrying one out in the case of severe disability.

Hughes, who supports the provision of abortion in such cases, said: “Midwives try to provide a sympathetic and holistic service to the woman but they are skating on very thin ice and they know it. Many don’t have a difficulty in supporting women through a termination. Their uneasiness comes if the termination subsequently turns out to have been a criminal act.”

Under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, which governs Northern Ireland abortions, procuring a miscarriage is illegal. However, the Bourne judgment of 1938 provides for exceptions to this rule. One is where there is a possibility the mother might die if the pregnancy runs to full term. Another is when there is a likelihood the mother’s mental or physical health will be affected in a way both “real and serious” and “permanent or long term”.

This rule is applied by some doctors in the case of foetal abnormality but has never been tested.

In the province, every pregnant woman is screened for Down’s syndrome or other such disorders and it is at this point that the option of abortion normally comes up.

“Proper clinical guidelines would provide reassurance for nurses and midwives but the law also needs to be reviewed,” said Hughes. “I am not in favour of introducing the British Act of 1967 but I do not believe the law as it stands has kept pace with advances in obstetrics”

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