Chai Brady
Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life Westminster’s approval of regulations giving the North’s Secretary of State Brandon Lewis power to direct the commissioning of abortion has been dubbed “outrageous” and should be “challenged”.
Precious Life said it should not be up to pro-life groups to defend devolution after the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 were approved by MPs in Westminster in a 431-89 vote last week.
Westminster’s abortion regulations came into operation a year ago through Section 9 of the ‘NI Executive Formation Act’. However, Northern Ireland’s Department of Health has not yet centrally commissioned the services on a region-wide basis.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, director of Precious Life Bernadette Smyth said: “It is outrageous that Stormont is not speaking out against this government [in Westminster] who have run roughshod over the Assembly here.
“It shouldn’t be for the pro-life movement to be trying to defend devolution, we elected politicians at Stormont, we went to the polls, we voted for these politicians but they don’t seem to be outraged enough – there’s no challenge to Westminster bar the fact that the executive at this moment so far is unwilling to implement the commissioning of more abortion ‘services’. That’s all we have at this point in time.”
She added: “We call on all our Assembly members – if they sincerely believe in devolution – to oppose this move by Brandon Lewis. Those who don’t and continue to sit in the NI Assembly are hypocrites.”