The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has confirmed it will appeal yesterday’s Court of Appeal ruling that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws are not incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.

The court allowed Attorney General John Larkin’s appeal against an earlier Order declaring Northern Ireland’s abortion laws incompatible with the Human Rights Act in the circumstances where the foetus was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality or where the pregnancy arises as a result of rape or incest.

Chief Commissioner Les Allamby said: “At a special meeting of the Human Rights Commission and following legal advice the Commissioners noted the Court of Appeal’s judgment.

“We first raised this issue in 2013 and remain as concerned today in 2017 that the law on termination of pregnancy as it stands does not protect women and girls right to be free from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, their right to privacy or their right to freedom from discrimination.

“We will continue to seek a change to the law so that women and girls in Northern Ireland have the choice of accessing a termination of pregnancy locally in circumstances of serious malformation of the foetus, rape or incest, without being criminalised for doing so.”

Mr Allamby said the Commission will lodge its application for leave to the UK Supreme Court today.