Northern Irish Assembly Rejects Abortion Law Change

Betrayal of women or faithful to sanctity of life?

© Regis Duvignau / Reuters

My subtitle above is a most unfortunate reality - we should never have come to a place where we have to choose a child's right to live over its mother's right to not be pregnant. It's an absurd argument since women have any number of ways to not get pregnant and that's really it, isn't it? If you don't want to have a baby, don't get pregnant! I know there are many situations where that is not a choice for a girl, but most abortions are not performed on women who had no choice in whether or not they get pregnant. That is a disgrace and is morally repugnant at best.

Members of the Northern Irish Assembly have voted against proposals to relax strict abortion laws. Human rights groups said the decision has “betrayed women and girls.”

The Stormont assembly voted 59 to 40 against the legislation, which proposed to allow abortions in the case of fatal fetal abnormality and sexual crime. 

Not sure I agree with preventing abortions of fatally abnormal fetuses, however, I suspect that could be misused. I don't know if that was their reasoning for rejecting it or not.

Amnesty International said the decision will allow Northern Ireland to maintain its “Victorian” and “restrictive” laws, and called on the devolved authority to bring its legislation in line with the rest of the UK.

Despite a debate which lasted until nearly midnight, the outcome of the vote was predictable, after the Democratic Unionists and the SDLP announced they would not support amendments to the law.

Abortion is permitted in the rest of the UK under the 1967 Abortion Act, but in Northern Ireland terminations are only allowed if the mental health or life of the mother is in danger.

The rejection of abortions for reason of sexual crimes, ie rape, is not a real issue since that can be covered under the 'mental health' exception. If a girl is able to carry the child while receiving counselling for the rape, she should do that. She can then give the child up for adoption if she doesn't want to keep it. 

She should also have the option of keeping the child and continuing counselling for a period afterward.

The change to legislation was proposed by Alliance Party members Trevor Lunn and Stewart Dickson. Lunn told the assembly his decision was sparked by the “painful” decision to access an abortion many years ago due to a fatal fetal condition.

In December last year, Belfast’s High Court ruled that abortion law in Northern Ireland breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland program director, said the laws are draconian and in need of urgent change.

“Northern Ireland’s abortion law dates from Victorian times, is among the most restrictive in the world and is in urgent need of reform. A vote to stymie change today is a further betrayal of women and girls who will continue to be forced to travel outside Northern Ireland to seek the healthcare they are denied at home.”

He said between 1,000 and 2,000 women are forced to travel abroad each year to find abortions, and “are made to feel like criminals for having done so.”

They would have felt that way even if they received their abortions in Belfast. Guilt is inevitable when you take the life of a child that God has blessed you with, as it should be.

“An extensive consultation on this issue was already conducted by the Department of Justice in 2014/2015 – it recommended a change to the law with regard to access to abortion on fatal fetal abnormality. The DUP and other Executive Ministers have had eight months to get behind the proposal from the Justice Minister and have failed to do so. More talk will tell us nothing we do not already know – that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland is unfit for purpose.”