TAKE ACTION
FINAL DAYS:
Send Alina’s story to MLAs and ask them to sign a Petition of Concern
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“My daughter’s life was saved“
”The support I received from peaceful volunteers outside the clinic where my abortion was scheduled changed my life. My daughter’s life was saved because of them. Please don’t criminalise offering help to women when they need it most.”
– Alina
Just 1 more MLA is needed to stop the Bill and help save more lives like Alina’s daughter.
Ask your MLA to be the 1
Clare Bailey MLA has brought forward the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill to Stormont
The Bill would allow the introduction of censorship zones outside abortion clinics and hospitals offering abortions across Northern Ireland. This would make it a criminal offence to “influenc[e]… a… person [seeking an abortion], whether directly or indirectly” within “safe access zones”. The Billis would effectively criminalise offers of assistance in these censorship zones.
At Committee Stage of the Bill, a public consultation was undertaken on the Bill and only 13 of the 6,412 submissions from members of the public supported the Bill. Despite this overwhelming opposition from among the general public, the Committee decided to progress the Bill.
This Final Stage for this Bill will take place this Tuesday (22 March).
WHAT IS A PETITION OF CONCERN AND HOW WILL IT STOP THIS BILL?
This Bill can be stopped if 30 MLAs sign a Petition of Concern.
29 MLAs (28 DUP MLAs and TUV MLA Jim Allister) have voted against the Bill at every stage of its progress. If just 1 extra MLA joins these 29 MLAs to sign a Petition of Concern, the Bill will effectively not be able to proceed and will not become law.
A large number of MLAs who have voted pro-life throughout their entire political careers have been persuaded to vote for or abstain on votes for this legislation. We just need one of these MLAs to sign a Petition of Concern for the Bill to be effectively stopped.
This is not a long shot, but we will not be able to get this across the line without your help.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE PETITION OF CONCERN
The Petition of Concern is a mechanism whereby 30 MLAs can petition the Assembly requiring a matter to be passed on a cross-community basis rather than by a simple majority.
This will mean that 60 percent of the chamber and 40 percent of both unionist and nationalist representatives will need to vote for the Bill.
If a Petition of Concern successfully reaches 30 signatures, as will happen if only 1 MLA joins the 29 MLAs (28 DUP MLAs and TUV MLA Jim Allister) who have voted against the Bill at every stage of its progress, it will then move on to a cross-community vote. At this stage, if the 29 unionist MLAs who have voted against the Bill at every stage, vote against it on this vote as they likely will, it will not have sufficient unionist votes to pass, and will fail.
Please enter your postcode in the box above to write to your MLAs now asking them if they will sign a Petition of Concern on the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill.
