A British MP is seeking assurances from the Government in Westminster that the people of Northern Ireland will have no say in the implementation of a new extreme abortion law in Northern Ireland.
Labour MP Stella Creasy, in a debate on Monday evening about the new extreme abortion law set to be imposed on Northern Ireland, sought a guarantee from the Government that in implementing this abortion legislation, the people of Northern Ireland would not be consulted at all.
She asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland:
“Can [you] confirm whether there is going to be public involvement in that consultation? It is really important for this House to be clear that, just as we would not ask non-medical professionals to consult on how to conduct a vasectomy, we should not do so when it comes to an abortion.”
In July, Stella Creasy put forward the original amendment which sought to introduce abortion into Northern Ireland. The extreme abortion amendment was made known on 4th of July, and it was selected by the Speaker only 37 minutes before the debate began on the 9th of July.
It was subsequently voted through later that afternoon, without the support of a single MP from Northern Ireland who sits in Parliament. As it now stands, the law will permit abortion up until 28 weeks gestation for any reason, including on the grounds of the sex of the child.
Bills can often take months to go through multiple stages in both Houses of Parliament and often have an element of public consultation. The Northern Ireland Bill however, was rushed through most of the parliamentary stages in less than a week.
Abortion remains a devolved issue in Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Assembly has consistently rejected abortion. Polling in the region has shown that the majority of women in Northern Ireland (66% in general and 70% of 18-34 year olds) do not want abortion law imposed on Northern Ireland from Westminster.
Furthermore, last weekend, tens of thousands of people attended demonstrations in Belfast against the Government’s extreme abortion legislation.
It is estimated that there are 100,000 people alive today who would otherwise not be, had the Abortion Act 1967 in the rest of Britain, been extended to that region.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said:
“The polling and public demonstrations over the last few days show how little public support there is for this new abortion law. It should come as no surprise that the radically pro-abortion Stella Creasy is extremely keen to ensure that the public are not consulted on this matter. If they were, they would probably reject it.”
“Unfortunately for Ms Creasy however, this is not how democracy works, and it is deeply undemocratic to remove the public from the conversation in this manner. You cannot intentionally keep the people of Northern Ireland out of the discussion simply because you do not like the answer they might give.”
