We just wanted to let you know that 29 MLAs have now signed a Petition of Concern to stop the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill.
This puts us only one signature off stopping this Bill, which if it becomes law, will likely lead to many more lives being lost in Northern Ireland.
The vote on Final Stage of this Bill is tonight. We need your help to ensure that we get this final signature ahead of then.
STEP ONE
We have just launched a new email tool with new email content centring on the story of Alina, who kept her baby after meeting pro-life volunteers outside an abortion clinic. We need to flood MLA inboxes with Alina’s story now.
If you are based in Northern Ireland, the first step we need you to do is send that email to your local MLAs. Please click the button below to visit the new tool and email your MLAs now:
STEP TWO
There are a small number of MLAs who have not signed the Petition of Concern who are most likely to sign it from among the group of MLAs who have not signed.
I have listed them below.
There are a very large number of people who will be reading this in Northern Ireland now and there is likely to be someone from among these people who knows one of these MLAs well enough to persuade them to sign the petition or knows someone who knows them who can do this.
Please look at the list below and if you have a relationship with that MLA or know someone who does, if you can, please drop everything you can now and make your focus for this afternoon to be getting a way to have a conversation with that MLA.
| Name | Party | Constituency |
| Sinéad Bradley | SDLP | South Down |
| Dolores Kelly | SDLP | Upper Bann |
| Robbie Butler | UUP | Lagan Valley |
| Trevor Lunn | Independent | Lagan Valley |
| Chris Lyttle | Alliance | Belfast East |
| Daniel McCrossan | SDLP | West Tyrone |
| Patsy McGlone | SDLP | Mid Ulster |
| Rosemary Barton | UUP | Fermanagh & South Tyrone |
| Mark Durkan | SDLP | Foyle |
| Cara Hunter | SDLP | East Londonderry |
| Roy Beggs | UUP | East Antrim |
| Stewart Dickson | Alliance | East Antrim |
To help out with that conversation, our Public Affairs team has put together a short document that outlines concise answers to specific objections we have been getting from pro-life MLAs who are currently not signing the Petition of Concern. It should be really helpful for conversations. You can access that resource by clicking here.
If you do have a conversation with any of these MLAs, please do let us know what they have said and if they have agreed to sign.
In addition, if you need any help with conversations with an MLA from this list, please reply to this email and I will organise for one of our team to have a call with you.
Finally, if you don’t live in Northern Ireland, but are on Facebook, you can help out by clicking here and sharing Alina’s story.
If you are not on Facebook, you can help out by forwarding this email to friends and family in Northern Ireland.
Thank you for all your help with this.
