UK says it won't impose abortion reform on Northern Ireland

The British government is under mounting pressure to ease Northern Ireland's restrictive abortion laws, but a Cabinet minister said today it would be wrong to impose change from London.

"Personally, I want to see reform in Northern Ireland, but it is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland," Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where abortion is illegal in all but exceptional cases. The neighboring Republic of Ireland voted last month to lift its abortion ban, putting pressure on the north to follow suit.

The sensitive issue is complicated because abortion rules are the responsibility of Northern Ireland's Belfast-based administration, which has been suspended since January 2017 because of feuding between the main Catholic and Protestant political parties.

Bradley said the best option for progress on abortion rights is to get the Northern Ireland assembly and government running again. But there is little sign of a breakthrough in the impasse between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party.

Given the political vacuum in Northern Ireland, some U.K. lawmakers want Britain's Parliament to intervene. They argue that abortion is a matter of human rights and therefore an issue for central, not regional, government.