Last night MPs from across the House of Commons spoke out as pro-abortion campaigners remained intent on forcing abortion on Northern Ireland and ignoring devolution as the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill progressed through its second reading in the House of Commons.
Ahead of the important Committee stage in the progress of the Bill where radical abortion amendments are expected to be added today, a number of MPs from across the House expressed their displeasure about the nature of the extremely divisive abortion amendments.
Labour party MP, Kate Hoey, criticised the amendments to the Bill “that are going to divide people very much”. Rather, tackling “historical institutional abuse” is something “which unites all the political parties”, and this would be a much more appropriate concern.
Ian Paisley MP, Sammy Wilson MP and Emma Little Pengelly MP from the DUP all criticised the amendments as a fundamental attack on devolution, with Paisley saying:
“[T]he amendments tabled to the Bill are about usurping the powers placed in Northern Ireland and bringing them back [to Westminster.]”
Equally Conservative MP, Fiona Bruce, criticised the abortion amendments to this Bill as being “out of scope” of the substance of the Bill itself. The Northern Ireland Bill is primarily concerned with extending the period for forming an Executive, from August 2019 to October 2019.
The “narrow scope [of the Bill] should be respected. It is not a Bill that should be used to upset the devolution position,” said Fiona Bruce.
Beyond the procedural impropriety of the Bill, Ian Paisley, drew attention to the fact that there is no human right to abortion in the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the majority of the people of Northern Ireland support abortion law remaining a devolved issue to be decided by the people of Northern Ireland and their representatives.
These are significant contributions ahead of the Committee stage of the Bill where the extreme abortion amendments are likely to be introduced. Evidence from past attempts to change the abortion law in Northern Ireland suggests that pro-abortion MPs will probably seek to remove sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against The Person Act, immediately making abortion legal for any reason throughout the first 28 weeks (about 7 months) of pregnancy.
The abortion amendments are expected to be brought forth today (09/07) as the Bill is fast-tracked through Parliament.
Right To Life has created a function to allow the public to quickly and easily email their MP about these abortion amendments to prevent them coming into affect.
