‘The day is a global effort to challenge harmful narratives around abortion healthcare, to dismantle barriers and to demand stigma-free access to abortion everywhere’
Belfast City Hall(Image: Belfast Live )
Belfast City Council has agreed to illuminate City Hall for abortion awareness on a date next March, after the DUP successfully blocked an illumination.
Plans to illuminate City Hall green for International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, 2026, were put on hold after the DUP triggered a council “call-in” procedure.
A call-in is a local government legal process where a minimum percentage of councillors can challenge a council decision, triggering an independent legal review and potential vote redetermination.
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DUP councillors and other unionist and anti-abortion groups including Precious Life vehemently opposed a decision to illuminate City Hall in September, which came after an Alliance Party proposal based on request received from the National Women’s Council of Ireland.
The DUP call-in was seen to have merit on procedural grounds, insofar as it required equality screening before the decision was made, something which did not happen.
At the November meeting of the full council on Monday (November 2), Green Party Councillor Anthony Flynn successfully requested for illumination upon City Hall to be brought to an alternative date, March 28 2027, to coincide with the Global Day of Action to De-stigmatise Abortion.
He said: “The day is a global effort to challenge harmful narratives around abortion healthcare, to dismantle barriers and to demand stigma-free access to abortion everywhere.”
He added: “Research from Amnesty International in December 2023 found that fewer than half of adults in Northern Ireland are aware that abortion is currently lawful in Northern Ireland, and only 13 percent of adults actually know how to access abortion services, and that is even lower amongst women.”
He said: “One of the most important aspects of this civic building is to spread awareness of people’s rights. And if the fact is that people have the right to access to abortion health care, then we should do all that we can to ensure people know how to use those rights.”
DUP Alderman Dean McCullough said: “It was an insensitive proposal initially, so to then request another on what is arguably the holiest week in the Christian calendar makes it even more insensitive, if that is possible.” He added: “For many, turning City Hall into effectively an abortion billboard was simply a step too far.”
Councillor Flynn said if the council agreed City Hall could be illuminated the week before the Global Day of Action to De-stigmatise Abortion in March.
On a recorded vote 36 elected representatives voted in favour of Councillor Flynn’s proposal, from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party, People Before Profit to 14 votes against from the DUP and UUP.
Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019, and the new legal framework and regulations making services fully accessible came into effect in March 2020. The new abortion services in NI are criticised by many as being inconsistent and short-staffed, with many areas providing no access. Significant numbers of people are still travelling to England or Scotland for abortions.
Belfast City Council is proposing curbs on the display of graphic imagery in the city centre, alongside noise limits for buskers and street preachers, in a draft city byelaw document that will be sent to Stormont.
A council committee at City Hall in February this year passed on a majority vote proposed draft byelaws to address graphic imagery and noise levels in Belfast City Centre. The unionist parties voted against the measure, and the DUP have attempted a “call-in” to black the decision.
The byelaws include new provisions for penalties, including fines up to £500, against those individuals making noise over 70 decibels in the city centre, and those displaying graphic imagery to members of the public.
While the noise proposals have appeared in previous drafts of the document, the imagery aspect is new, and has been proposed mainly in reaction to the displaying of imagery by anti-abortion campaigners.
This aspect would prohibit the public display in the city centre of large poster size imagery relating to miscarriage and abortion without warning. Promotional materials which contain graphic imagery, as defined in the new byelaws, would still be permitted, but must be no more than A4 size, and contained within an envelope bearing an appropriate warning.
The draft document has several hurdles left before reaching policy level, and councillors from a range of parties have stated that the document may not be approved by the Stormont Department for Communities, where the council has to seek statutory approval. That department is led by DUP Minister Gordon Lyons.
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