Chai Brady
The Northern Catholic bishops have said Westminster’s direction for the North of Ireland to establish full abortion services is “gravely disquieting”.
They said it is the latest in “a line of decisions by the current Westminster government which we believe threaten the fragile balance of relationships at the heart of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”.
“Sadly, some of our local political parties seem content to welcome this unilateral move by Westminster on an issue which is of fundamental importance to local voters, while rightly challenging such unilateral impositions on other issues.”
This comes after Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis directed Stormont last week to set up full abortion services no later than next March.
Legislation was passed in Westminster in 2019 liberalising the North’s abortion laws while Stormont was defunct. Full services have not been centrally commissioned due to Executive party disagreements.
The bishops said that they have consistently held that the right to life of every person is the prior and essential right of all other human rights.
“Thankfully, we live in an age when sensitivity to the preciousness and fragility of all life on our planet, even in its most microscopic forms, is better understood and appreciated. The failure to extend this sensitivity and care to our own fellow human beings in the womb, as well as to mothers in pregnancy will, we believe, one day be seen as a grave moral blindness on the part of this generation…” the bishops said in their statement.
They encouraged all Catholic and pro-life people to reflect on the issues raised by “this succession of unilateral impositions by the Westminster government”.
Focusing on future elections to the North’s assembly, the bishops said: “We encourage everyone who believes in the equal right to life and compassionate care for a mother and her unborn child to ask local candidates and political parties to explain their position on these interventions and on this most fundamental of all issues.”
The statement was signed by Archbishop Eamon Martin, Bishop Noel Treanor, Bishop Donal McKeown, Bishop Larry Duffy and Bishop Michael Router.
The leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín described the direction from Westminster as a “violation of devolution and human rights” and it was “shocking” that several parties in the North supported “an undemocratic imposition of an extreme abortion law on the North of Ireland”.
“For us it’s quite shocking that Sinn Féin and the SDLP leadership were in many ways behind this push to lobby Westminster to force abortion through in the North of Ireland,” he said.
“In any poll that’s been taken, even those who consider themselves pro-choice have said that the decision should be made in Stormont and in Stormont there has never been a majority for this kind of abortion bill. Every abortion bill that has gone through Stormont has failed to get a majority.”
Mr Tóibín added: “For 200 years republicans have told London they had no right to legislate for any part of Ireland and here we are with Sinn Féin completely turning republicanism on its head, looking for Westminster to enforce its legislation on the North of Ireland.”