On 21 October, the failure of a last-ditch attempt at the Stormont Assembly to stop abortion law changes in Northern Ireland, triggered the introduction of new provisions under the  Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 (“the Act”). As reported in our weekly round-up of 14th July 2019, amendments were introduced during the passage of the Act which inter alia obliged the Westminster government to bring forward legislative proposals to reform Northern Ireland’s abortion law and to make provision for same-sex marriage, unless a Northern Ireland Executive was formed before 21 October 2019.

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