A time of great peril

The View

When The Irish Catholic is published this week, there will be just 18 days before abortion is imposed on Northern Ireland by the Westminster Parliament, unless the Northern Ireland Assembly is reformed by October 22.

This will happen against the wishes of the elected MPs who take their seats in the House of Commons, against the wishes of the Peers who live in Northern Ireland, in contravention of the most recent decision of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and despite the recent ComRes polling of Northern Ireland adults which shows very clearly that people in Northern Ireland do not want abortion law changed from Westminster. That was the clear view of 64% of people rising to 66% of women, and rising again to 72% of 18- to 32-year-olds. There have been massive protests in NI against what has happened. Another protest will be held on October 13.

The law inflicting this on Northern Ireland was passed this summer during the July 12 fortnight. There was no consultation, no consideration of the impact of doing this on our Health Service. The actual clause which became law was passed by the House of Commons during a 17-minute debate which included consideration of a number of other issues of great importance to Northern Ireland which included pensions for victims of the explosions and shootings of the Troubles. Just 17 minutes!

In those 17 minutes they passed a law which will apply from October 22 until further law is passed by the Secretary of State. That further law must be introduced by March 31, 2020. It appears that it will be introduced by the Secretary of State without consultation with the people or their elected representatives.

Donation scheme

Another Act of the Westminster Parliament, introduced in 2019, the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act introduced a new organ donation scheme, but it will not come into effect for a year. The medical profession and patients will have had a year to prepare for a new system.  Northern Ireland has been provided with no time to even begin to think about the impact of the new abortion law, or to make alternative provision to support mothers and their unborn children, to provide protection to medical practitioners who have lived their professional lives in compliance with the basic philosophy that they should first do no harm.

Abortion has only one purpose: to cause fatal damage to the unborn child, whether by an injection of potassium chloride into its heart, or by other means. The voice of that child will never be heard. The voice of the people of Northern Ireland on this matter has not been heard.

Given the record of the Parliament at Westminster, (unless the NI Assembly returns) that further law will be passed as it is presented by the Secretary of State, Julian Smith, who has complete power over what it will say. There will be no ability to amend it. The Parliamentary procedure chosen to introduce this law does not permit of any amendment whatsoever. What ever is written by the Secretary of State will become law. The Secretary of State and the NIO Ministers are, interestingly, all men.

Opportunity

Indications are that the law which will be introduced will be reflective of the English Abortion Act 1967, a law passed 52 years ago which has seen little amendment, other than to extend the opportunity to access abortion, so that we know that babies are aborted even up to birth because they have some disability. 90% of babies with Downs Syndrome in England and Wales are now aborted, as are children with cleft palates and club feet.

We do not know though exactly what the Secretary of State will do. There is no expressed intention to consult our MLAs. I have asked repeatedly for this to happen, and I have another bill before Parliament seeking such consultation.

It will be even worse though, than in England and Wales because, unless the NI Assembly is reformed by October 22, there will be no explicit protection for mothers who might be forced to have an abortion by a partner, or somebody else who does not want her to have her baby. From October 22 the law will say that there can be no investigation carried out, and no criminal proceedings brought or continued, in respect of any attempt to procure an abortion (whenever committed).

This means that the current effective protection against coercive abortion, including the practice of secretly slipping abortion pills into the drinks of pregnant women, will no longer exist (and people have been convicted in England and Wales of this offence.) The law providing a penalty for such an action has not been repealed in England and Wales, just in Northern Ireland.

We have no indication that there will be any explicit protection for any unborn child up to 28 weeks of pregnancy, or the point at which the baby is deemed by a doctor to be viability. The presumption in NI law is that a baby is viable from 28 weeks.

The voice of the people of Northern Ireland on this matter has not been heard”

There is no suggestion that there will be specific protection for unborn babies with a disability, no prohibition on abortion based on the sex of the baby, no offence in the criminal law of procuring the abortion of any baby.

We have a potential vacuum of up to five months (October 2019 – March 2020) in Northern Ireland for unregulated abortion to exist with all the attendant health risks to women. It is said that abortions will not happen in Northern Ireland during this period. I cannot see why that would be the case. Why wouldn’t women demand the right to have an abortion since carrying out any abortion before viability cannot be a criminal offence?

After October 22, unless the NI Assembly returns, there will be no law guaranteeing protection to medical staff from being forced to act in support of abortion. Existing law in England and Wales gives very little protection, other than to medical staff who cannot be required to be in an operating theatre or otherwise directly involved in abortion provision.

In this situation the NI Assembly must go back to business. There are many other reasons – the existing massive problems with our health service, our education service, our infrastructure, our concerns about the impact of an unplanned Brexit – but none of these is more important than the need to protect the unborn child in the place in which it should be safest – its Mother’s womb.

I have a petition addressed to the Secretary of State for NI asking him to recall the NI Assembly, and to all MLAs calling on them to go back and do the work for which they were elected. You can find it at https://www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-northern-ireland-stop-radical-abortion-change-being-imposed-on-the-northern-irish-people

In just over 48 hours over 5,000 people signed it. I ask everyone living in the UK, who believes that this terrible law should not come into effect, to sign this petition and to take every other opportunity offered, especially by sending postcards etc. to your MLAs, to get Stormont back to work by October 21.