Former Secretary of State for the North, Brandon Lewis. The Westminster government has been criticised for seeking to give Britain’s secretary of state for the region new powers to compel Stormont to implement abortion laws over the head of locally-elected politicians.
Aontú has described the push as an “attack on self-determination”.
Speaking of the unprecedented decision, Derry Aontú representative Gemma Brolly said: “For 200 years republicans have told Westminster that they have no right to impose their law on Ireland”, but Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Féin in “a seismic U-turn… have binned that policy”.
“Last week we saw the party that once boasted of its civil rights credentials [the SDLP] equivocate on whether or not to allow for abortion in the north on the basis of disability,” Ms Brolly said.
“It is shocking to so many of us that Michelle O’Neill spoke out against a bill that sought to remove Down Syndrome as a reason for abortion.
“The absence of compassion and humanity in Michelle O’Neill’s attack on this reform to protect children with disability has struck so many in the nationalist community,” Ms Brolly said.
Stalled
The North’s abortion laws changed last March after Westminster imposed new legislation during the absence of the local assembly. The new abortion laws have been stalled due to differences within the five-party executive.
Westminster’s intervention will see NI Secretary Brandon Lewis lay new regulations in parliament in London early next week. This will allow him to direct the Department of Health to commission the services despite the misgivings of the region’s health minister Robin Swan.
It has been a year since Westminster introduced abortion laws in the North, which were supported by MPs from England, Scotland and Waled but opposed by all northern MPs who take their seats.
Director of pro-life group Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth, said: “The latest threat from Westminster is first and foremost a direct attack on Northern Ireland’s unborn babies, but also an attack on democracy and devolution.
“Westminster has already ignored the principles of democracy and devolution when they forced abortion on Northern Ireland in 2019 through Section 9. They used the excuse that the Stormont assembly was suspended at that time.
“But the assembly has now been up and running since January 2020 so it will cause a constitutional crisis if Westminster again tries to legislate for what is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland,” she said.