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Northern Ireland Assembly rejects abortion
Westminster, 20 June 2000--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) today welcomed the rejection by the Northern Ireland Assembly of any move to introduce liberal abortion in the province.Speaking after this afternoon's debate, Mrs Betty Gibson,
chairwoman of SPUC Northern Ireland, said: "There have been huge
advances in medical science since abortion was liberalised in Britain
in 1967. We now know more than ever before about the life of the child
in the womb.
"The people of Northern Ireland have seen what liberal abortion
has done to Britain, where more than 500 children are killed every day
and countless women are damaged physically and emotionally by the
abortion process.
"The overwhelming rejection of liberal abortion by the Assembly
sends a clear message to the pro-abortionists in the House of Commons
and in Belfast-based government bodies such as the Human Rights
Commission-they will not succeed in imposing abortion on demand on the
people here.
"It will also show the pro-abortion lobby in the Irish Republic
that they cannot use Northern Ireland as an excuse to try to undermine
the ban that the Irish people voted to enshrine in their constitution.
"In the Assembly, cross-party opposition to abortion on demand
was so overwhelming that it was un-necessary to go to a count. The
people and their elected representatives are united against abortion. I
wholeheartedly thank the MLAs, and in particular Mr Jim Wells who
proposed the motion.
"Those who seek what they call a clarification in the law are
invariably interested in making abortion widely available. The law in
the province is quite clear. Only if the mother's life is in direct
danger may the baby's life be taken, and such instances are very few
and far between.
"There is no need to change a law which has the wholehearted support of the great majority of Northern Ireland's people."
Authority to legislate on abortion has not been delegated from London to the assembly.
Seventy-nine of the 108 assembly members originally signed the
petition in support of the motion by Mr Wells (Democratic Unionist)
which stated: "That this House defends the right to life of the unborn
child and opposes any change in the law governing abortion in Northern
Ireland."
Speakers in the debate described the process of human
development in the womb. In particular it was pointed out that an
unborn child's heart started to beat within a month of conception. At
one British hospital, nearly three quarters of very premature babies
had survived, all of them of an age at which they might have been
legally aborted.
Members also spoke about the horrific ways in which babies were
aborted and described the often serious effects on the mother's
physical and mental health. It was untrue to assert that abortion was
safe or no more dangerous than child-birth.
"Back-street" abortion, the classic pro-abortion myth, is virtually unknown in Northern Ireland.
Proponents of the 1967 Abortion Act had spoken in minimalist
terms about the circumstances in which abortion would permitted.
Experience had shown, however, that abortion was effectively available
on demand in Britain.
MLAs made it clear that the people of Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, wanted none of that.
