A pro-life organisation has launched legal proceedings to formally challenge Northern Ireland's abortion regulations.
Legal papers were yesterday lodged at the High Court in Belfast on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
Abortion laws in the north were liberalised by MPs at Westminster in 2019 at a time when power sharing had collapsed.
However, while individual health trusts have been offering services on an ad hoc basis, the Department of Health has yet to centrally commission the services on a region-wide basis.
Last month, Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Lewis laid out the regulations before Westminster.
The regulations give him the ability to compel the region’s health department to commission the services.
SPUC said it's legal documents challenge both the "validity and lawfulness" of the Westminster proposals.
Furthermore, it wants the High Court to declare the regulations are "of no force or effect".
The pro-life group is seeking to have the regulations quashed and wants the court to rule that Stormont's ministers have "no obligation to comply with any direction issued by the Secretary of State under the 2021 Regulations".
SPUC is being represented in court by former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin.
They have also instructed Belfast solicitors Hewitt & Gilpin.
