Chai Brady
Baroness Nuala O'Loan Pro-life politicians and activists are calling on the Northern Ireland Executive not to effect the abortion regulations currently being considered by the UK government, due to a “flawed” public consultation.
The regulations are in the midst of being prepared and will expand abortion services in Northern Ireland with Baroness Nuala O’Loan saying the initial consultation was “very flawed”. They are due to be implemented at the end of the month.
Baroness Nuala O’Loan MP told The Irish Catholic: “Nobody knows what the abortion regulations are going to say. A very flawed consultation was conducted. It was only possible to access the consultation using email or the internet which would have excluded a lot of people who do not use IT.
“Given the fact that the assembly is up in business again and that abortion is a devolved matter, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland should do only what the law requires him to do. He should go no further, and should not introduce regulations to give effect to the kind of abortion regime apparently being considered in the consultation.”
She said it appears that the regulations will allow abortion to be legal on demand up to 12-14 weeks, on the grounds that there is a risk, not a threat, to the physical or mental health of the woman, any existing children or her family up to 22 or 24 weeks, with abortion up to birth if the baby has a disability – not a life limiting disability.
In July 2019 an amendment was passed to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc.) Bill requiring the government to introduce a new abortion framework for Northern Ireland while Stormont was suspended. As is required by the law, regulations are expected to be implemented on March 31.
Statement
This comes as new statistics on conception released by the Office of National Statistics in Britain found that nearly a quarter of pregnancies among English and Welsh residents ended in abortion in 2018.
In a statement pro-life group Precious Life said the statistics must serve as a “stark warning” for Northern Ireland’s politicians who should repeal the new abortion legislation through Stormont. The British Office for National Statistics said yesterday this was the highest proportion since records began in 1990.
In 2018 there were 839,043 conceptions for English and Welsh residents and 200,608 abortions.
Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life said: “We have launched our ‘Repeal Section 9’ Campaign, which calls on our elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly to repeal Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 and restore full legal protection for all unborn babies in Northern Ireland.