Reproductive Issues Resources

Questions on Abortion were asked in the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) Survey in 2016 2018 and 2025.
Questions on Abortion were asked in the Religious Observance questions in NILT in 1998, 2004 and 2008.
Questions on LGBT issues were asked in NILT in 2012 and 2013.

ARK Resources

• Journeys to parenthood five years on: Cross-border fertility treatment and legal parenthood for female same-sex couples in Northern Ireland (Policy Brief 46), by Danielle Mackle and Sophie Nelson, considers the policy context and changes five years on from ARK Policy Brief 19.
• The absence of first-trimester antenatal screening in Northern Ireland: women’s experiences and rights (Policy Brief 45), by Fiona Bloomer, Suzie Heaney and Claire Lougarre, considers the impact of this absence.
• Antenatal screening in Northern Ireland and Women’s Rights (Policy Brief 29) by Claire Lougarre, Suzie Heaney and Fiona Bloomer, is based on two roundtable events in 2024.
• Abortion and Access in Prison (Policy Brief 26) by Maureen Mansfield, Kirsty Kitchen, Conor Murray, Emma Campbell and Fiona Bloomer, is based on a roundtable event held in 2023.
• Research Update 127 - The Genie is out of the Bottle: Self-managed abortions in Northern Ireland using pills, by Goretti Horgan, looks at the views and experiences of women in Northern Ireland who used pills to self-manage an abortion.
LGBTQ+ Community’s Journey to Parenthood: considering the health inequalities and the legal implications that exist in the pursuit of parenthood for the LGBTQ+ community in Northern Ireland (Policy Brief 19) by Danielle Mackle and Fiona Bloomer was published in 2021.
• Developing Integrated Sexual & Reproductive Health Services in N. Ireland, by Goretti Horgan, Ann Marie Gray and Leanne Morgan, is a Policy Brief published in 2019.
• Developing policy for a full reproductive health service in NI, by Goretti Horgan, Ann Marie Gray and Leanne Morgan, is based on a roundtable event held in September 2019.
• Northern Ireland supports abortion law reform is a 2019 ARK Feature by Goretti Horgan and Ann Marie Gray based on data from the 2016 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.
• Do social attitudes to abortion suggest political parties in Northern Ireland are out of step with their supporters? (ARK Feature 7), by Ann Marie Gray, Goretti Horgan and Paula Devine, also uses data from the 2016 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.
• The 2016 Life and Times questions on abortion is part of the Buying abortion through the internet: exploring the social harm of criminalising abortion in Northern Ireland and the UK, funded by the ESRC Transformative Research Programme. The survey team comprises Goretti Horgan, Ann Marie Gray and Linda Moore.
• Research Update 115 - Attitudes to abortion in Northern Ireland - by Ann Marie Gray, uses data from the 2016 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey. A recording of the launch is here.

Links

• Abortion in Northern Ireland: recent changes to the legal framework is a Commons Library briefing paper provides an overview of recent changes to the law on abortion in Northern Ireland. It covers the changes that were introduced by the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, as well as the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020, 2021 and 2022.
• The Department of Health has published statistics on the termination of pregnancy in Northern Ireland.
• The Department of Health publishes statistics on abortions within England and Wales, which includes figures for women resident in Northern Ireland

Maintained by Paula Devine