A pro-life group is to fund legal action against new abortion legislation which allows the Secretary of State to direct the commissioning of services.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has joined with the Centre for Bioethical Reform Northern Ireland (CBR NI) to mount a challenge to the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021.
The regulations, passed by Parliament in March, give Secretary of State Brandon Lewis the power to direct the First and deputy First Ministers and the departments of health, justice and education, to implement a “fully-funded abortion service”.
The SPUC hopes to raise in excess of £100,000 to cover the court costs.
Huge changes to the north's laws came into effect at the end of March 2020.
Abortions can be carried out in all circumstances up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. But abortion provision is patchy and varies depending on health trust.
The new abortion regulations aim to see the introduction of consistent, Northern Ireland-wide services.
Liam Gibson, SPUC’s Northern Ireland Political Officer, said the new law over the commissioning of abortion services poses "nothing less than an existential challenge to the very existence of the pro-life movement in Northern Ireland".
"Men and women from all political backgrounds, faiths and traditions who view the right to life as the fundamental human right need to stand up and demand that the London government listens," he said.
Mr Gibson said abortion is a devolved matter and described initial abortion legislation, passed in 2019 during the hiatus at Stormont, as a "disgraceful power grab by the Westminster Government".
"When the Northern Ireland Executive was not functioning, the UK Government foisted radical abortion laws on us which would never have secured a majority in the Stormont Assembly," he said.
Pro-life campaigners will be represented in court by former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin, QC.
