Chai Brady
Members of anti-abortion life group Precious Life, Northern Ireland. The SDLP and Sinn Féin are being challenged at doorsteps by “outraged” voters due to their position on abortion as the election in the North of Ireland approaches.
Pro-life group Precious Life say part of this is down to their campaigning to inform people about how abortion was “imposed” on the North following a decision made in Westminster in 2019 when Stormont was defunct.
Speaking particularly about disappointment related to the SDLP, Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life said: “That particular time people were really lobbying the SDLP as the party that would stand with the DUP. By doing that they could have stopped the imposition of abortion. They had assured their constituents that they would work to stop the Westminster government. What happened is the SDLP walked out of Stormont which meant there was no agreement that would have formed a government to stop the legislation.”
She said that “people have really woken up” and pro-life Christian groups have come together on the issue.
“There’s a great unification of nationalists and unionists coming together on the ground: the grassroots pro-lifers are really putting their energy into exposing what happened,” Mrs Smyth added, saying there will be many more pro-life candidates standing in the May 5 election.
“There’s a new flavour in terms of Aontú as a nationalist pro-life party, people are yearning for something new in politics. We’re seeing people outraged by the SDLP who now hold similar policies to Sinn Féin: they no longer hold a pro-life policy,” she said.
“This was bound to happen at some stage because people are fed up with the old politics of Northern Ireland.”