Pro-lifers in Northern Ireland have condemned the Westminster Government’s “threat” to ignore devolution and force more abortions on the country.
Precious Life, the largest pro-life group in Northern Ireland, said the latest “threat” exposed the Government’s “hypocrisy”, as it has pledged to do all it can to ‘save lives’ amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Robin Walker, the Minister for State for Northern Ireland, warned that Westminster may intervene directly if abortions were not made more freely available in Northern Ireland soon.
He made his comments in the House of Commons, as he was questioned about the current law in the province.
Abortion was imposed on Northern Ireland by Westminster in October 2019. Section 9 of Westminster’s NI (Executive Formation etc) Act removed the sections of the Offences Against the Person Act that had previously protected unborn babies and their mothers from abortion in Northern Ireland and the new abortion regulations came into force on 31st March 2020.
Health Minister Robin Swann has since admitted that 664 babies were aborted between March and October 2020.
On commissioning more abortions, Mr Walker said he was “continuing to engage with the minister of health and his department” but added that he is also “considering further legislative action at Westminster”.
Responding to pro-abortion Alliance MP Stephen Farry, he added: “We do want to see progress on this issue, we would continue to prefer it to be delivered by the devolved institutions. But as I’ve said already, we stand ready to act if that progress is not made.”
Mr Farry also wrote to the Northern Ireland Office to ‘raise concerns’ that there haven’t been enough abortions there, while fellow pro-abortion MP Stella Creasy demanded Westminster “act to intervene now”.
Bernadette Smyth, director of Precious Life, said this latest “threat” exposed Westminster’s “hypocrisy” as she urged all people in Northern Ireland to demand that Westminster stop ignoring devolution.
“This latest abortion threat from Westminster exposes the hypocrisy of the Government who claim they want to ‘save lives’ in the Covid pandemic, yet they want to destroy lives of even more unborn babies in Northern Ireland.
“Six-hundred-and-sixty-four babies have already been killed in Northern Ireland and that number will now be even higher since October. But that’s not enough babies killed for Stephen Farry, Stella Creasy and Robin Walker. They want the Government to override democracy and devolution again by taking legislative action at Westminster to force more abortions on Northern Ireland.”
Ms Smyth added: “Precious Life call on all people in Northern Ireland to contact their MP and MLAs to demand that Westminster stop interfering in devolved matters, and urge our Assembly to save lives by repealing Section 9 and restoring personhood to our unborn babies.”
The latest threat from Westminster comes in the wake of legal action instigated by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) – and funded by UK taxpayers – to increase the number of abortions in Northern Ireland.
As reported in The Catholic Universe, Les Allamby, head of the NIHRC, initiated legal action against the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis; the Northern Ireland Executive; and the Department of Health (DoH) for “failing to commission and fund abortion services”.
Mr Allamby said the commission is “deeply concerned” at the lack of abortions in Northern Ireland and believes the failure of the Executive and DoH to fund and commission them breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.
Picture: Archive photo shows Precious Life protesting against abortion outside Stormont. (Precious Life).
