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68 N. Ir. Legal Q. 1 (2017)
Abortion by Telemedicine in Northern Ireland: Patient and Professional Rights across Borders

handle is hein.journals/nilq68 and id is 5 raw text is: NILQ 68(1): 1-33 Abortion by telemedicine in Northern Ireland: patient and professional rights across borders TAMARA HERVEY University of Sheffield and SALLY SHELDON University of Kent* Abstract The ulneasy legal and political settlement regarding abortion in Northern Ireland has long relied on the outsourcng of aspects of reproductive health care. While local health services offer only hihy restricted access to termination procedures, women travel to access abortion services elsewhere. However, technological changes, in particular the development of abortffaient medicines, are revolutionising this aspect of reproductive healthcare. Rather than women having to travel to a service, today that service can travel to women throu1gh the postal suipply of abortion pills, sourced via the internet. While online supply of pharmaceulticals can pose potentialpublic health risks, at least two groups offer safe and effective telemedical services to women in Northern Ireland. Women on Web and Women Help Women each supply abortion pills, ulnderprescrption from a doctor based in another countr, to women who wish to end a pregnancy of nine weeks or less. Here, we consider the extent to which the telemedical abortion services that they offer are protected by transnational law, in particlar, EU provisions on cross-border services. This offers new and hitherto unexplored lines of legal argument (including defences against criminal prosecution and challenges to a state 1 attempts to restrict the flow of services). Through claiming the autonomy-based legal relationships implicit in transnational law and the power that flows therefrom, we suggest, women may challenge regulatory arrangements which seek to limit their reproductive rights. Introduction In April 2016, the first woman in at least a decade was convicted of illegal abortion in Northern Ireland.1 Finding herself pregnant at 19 years of age and unable to raise the money to travel to England for a legal termination, she had taken abortion pills sourced We are grateful to the SURE student intern scheme at the University of Sheffield; to Laura Robinson, our SURE student, for her enthusiastic and persistent contributions; to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for funding Sheldon's research into the regulation of abortion pills (AH/LO06537/1; <www.kent.ac.uk/law/mabal/index.html>); and to the following for constructive and insightful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper or parts thereof: Professor Kenneth Armstrong; Professor Marie Fox; Dr Goretti Horgan; Dr Sorcha Macleod; Dr Brid Ni Ghriinne; Professor Steven Peers; Professor Sol Picciotto; Stefanie Pletz; Flora Renz; Dr Oisin Suttle; and an anonymous reviewer. 1 Henry McDonald, 'Northern Irish Woman Given Suspended Sentence over Self induced Abortion' The Guardian (4 April 2016) <www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/04/northern-irish-woman-suspended-sentence-self induced-abortion>. A freedom of information request submitted by Dr Goretti Horgan found that no woman had been convicted under s 58, Offences Against the Person Act 1861, between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2015 (on file with the authors). NILQ spring 2017

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