UK moves to ensure abortion services are commissioned in N. Ireland

LONDON - Britain said on Thursday it planned to legislative action to ensure abortion services were commissioned in Northern Ireland, following what it called "inaction" from the province's health department and its currently devolved executive.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that the Executive and Department of Health have failed women and girls, meaning that they cannot currently access the same basic abortion healthcare that is available to women and girls in the rest of the UK," Britain's Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis, said.

"That's why I am acting to remove any further barriers to delivering services."