By Harry Hutchinson, Labour Party Northern Ireland, personal capacity
The Supreme Court has ruled that in cases of foetal abnormality, rape and incest, Northern Ireland abortion law is incompatible with human rights law. This ruling adds more pressure on NI legislators to fall into line with the decisive referendum in the South to decriminalize abortion.
The strength of the mood to extend the rights to women in the North was felt when over ten thousand marched though Belfast last weekend. Although the march was to campaign for marriage equality, thousands walked carrying pro-choice banners.
A few days previously, women stood at the City Hall in Belfast handing out and self-administering pregnancy termination pills, thus making a whole mockery of the Pro-Life movement and the legal situation.
Polls show that a clear majority of both Protestants and Catholics support the right to abortion in exceptional circumstances. Last year saw the highest number of women from Northern Ireland travelling to England to terminate a pregnancy, clearly demonstrating many women wanted to exercise their right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Currently in NI, abortion is only permitted if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of permanent or serious damage to their mental or physical well-being. These exceptional circumstances to allow termination are accepted with the pro-life DUP, who prop up May’s Tory Government.
These acceptable circumstances demonstrate the contradictions in the Pro-life argument: to protect the unborn child, yet to allow terminations on some cases, completely undermines the Pro-life case; in fact the whole Pro-life argument collapses.
People have not accepted the Pro-life argument that abortion terminates a life; on the contrary, the majority of people regard abortion rights as a woman’s right to choose when to create life.
The churches, particularly the Catholic church has been silenced on this women’s’ rights issue. These conservative bodies, like conservative parties, use anti-abortion rights to control women. The Pew research centre in the USA found that 8 out of 10 people who were Pro-life tended to support the Republican (Conservative) parties; contrastingly, 8 out of 10 Pro-choice supporters tended to support the Democrat (Liberal) parties.
The isolation of the Pro-life campaign in NI is clear for all to see. NI is the last European country not to have decriminalized abortion. What now stands in the way is the fact that there is no legislative assembly in Stormont to discuss the issue. The DUP have insisted that any decision should be made in the NI Assembly, in the knowledge that a right of veto though the ‘Petition of Concern’ is at their disposal to halt any decision on extending abortion rights to Norther Ireland.
The people in the North, like in the South, must have the right to decide in a referendum.
June 11, 2018
