Stormont MLA’s will vote today on pro-abortion amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill

Two amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill seeking the introduction of abortion now look unlikely to pass as the DUP say they will vote against it.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has however asked the Northern Ireland Health Minister to set up a working group to look at how the issue of so called ‘fatal foetal abnormality’ can be addressed.

Two separate amendments to the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Bill, tabled by  the Alliance and the Green Parties, aimed at changing the law on abortion will come to a vote today Wednesday February 10^th, The amendments if approved would allow abortion of babies with life-limiting disabilities and babies conceived by criminal acts (rape or incest).

Both the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and Precious Life appealed to MLA’s to reject the proposals. These are the most vulnerable of unborn children and if their legal protection is denied, the legal protection of all unborn children is brought into question.

Northern Ireland’s Catholic Bishops have also urged Assembly members to reject the proposed amendments. The Bishops in their statement rephrased the issue to refer to unborn children with life-limiting conditions, rather than the pro-abortion definition of ‘fatal foetal abnormality’.

The DUP has asked the Northern Ireland health minister to set up a working group to look at how the issue of fatal foetal abnormality can be addressed.

The move comes as MLAs prepare for an assembly debate on whether to make abortions legal in such cases. The DUP said the issue required proper consideration by the assembly and executive, and that the Bill was not intended for this purpose. They have asked Health Minister Simon Hamilton to set up a working group, including clinicians and people with a legal background, to make recommendations as to how the issue can be addressed, including, if necessary, draft legislation. It is to report within six months.

The proposed amendment looks unlikely to pass now that the DUP has said it will be voting against it.

Commentary on the non-applicability of the recent Northern Ireland judgement on abortion to the Republic of Ireland

Liam Gibson, the Northern Ireland representative for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, has prepared a commentary on the recent Horner judgement with respect to the Republic of Ireland.
This is a very timely commentary as it is likely that the judgement will be cited by pro-abortion organisations and politicians in the lead up to the coming general election.

Why the Horner judgement cannot be used to change the law in the Republic of Ireland.
The salient points of Liam's commentary are included below.

1. The ruling by Mr Justice Horner that abortion laws in Northern Ireland are incompatible with the European Convention was not based on his interpretation of the Convention. Instead he claimed that the Northern Ireland law, unlike the law in the Republic, does not recognise the right to life of the unborn child. (This claim is untrue but was based entirely on UK law. Not only can his judgement not apply to the Republic, he actually set out to use the law in the South to undermine the law in the Six Counties.)

2. He acknowledged that the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights did not find the Republic’s law, which prohibits abortion on grounds of fatal anomaly and rape, to be incompatible with the Convention. (In A B & C v Ireland the court said that C had been prevented from obtaining an abortion that would have been lawful because her life was threatened and therefore her rights were violated.)

3. Horner cited various English cases, including Paton v UK and Re MB, to claim that unlike the Republic, under English law the foetus had no right to life. He then claimed that the situation in Northern Ireland was the same as England by pretending that the absence of the Abortion Act in Northern Ireland made no difference.

4. He explicitly pointed to the differences between the law in the Republic and the North:

• The Eighth Amendment recognised the right to life before birth with the purpose of  preventing the legalisation of abortion;
• The Eighth Amendment was adopted by popular vote; 
• As Strasbourg said in Open Door v Ireland, it was based on the profound moral views of the Irish people on the nature of life; 
• No one knows what the people of the North think about the subject. (He was either ignorant of or disregarded the public consultation which took place less than12 months earlier which overwhelmingly rejected a change in the law.)

5. The Convention requires restrictions on the Article 8 right to privacy to be, among other things, proportionate to their aim. He argued that since the foetus has no right to life, punishing abortion with life imprisonment was disproportionate and therefore violated the Convention when it prohibited abortion in the circumstances he approved of, that is, fatal abnormality and rape. (He should have recognised that the severity of the sentence reflected the high regard in which the foetus is held. The 1861 Act and the 1945 Act require life imprisonment precisely because abortion deprives the unborn child of his life.)

6. Mr Justice Horner did not claim that the Convention recognises a human right to abortion so the Republic does not have to change its law. He acknowledged that Art 40.3.3 prevents the legalisation in the Republic of abortion on the grounds he dealt with and that this is entirely compatible with human rights. The Horner judgement only confirms the importance of the Eighth Amendment and pro-lifers must fight to keep it in the Constitution.

The full text of the commentary can be provided. Please contact Patrick Buckley on the following e-mail address. patrick@europeanlifenetwork.org
 

Consultation proposed by NI Justice Minister David Forde to introduce abortion in certain circumstances

Northern Ireland's Justice Minister - David Ford caused furor yesterday when he announced his intention to consult on changing the law to allow abortion in some circumstances. In an initiative that corresponds closely with what pro-abortionists are currently attempting to do in the South of Ireland the new consultation Ford proposes is the killing of special-needs babies who may die before or shortly after birth and unborn babies conceived through rape or incest.

Abortion is still a criminal offence in Northern Ireland and the law protects the lives of unborn babies. It is essential that the law should be upheld and that David Ford does not succeed in changing it.

This is essentially about eugenics not women’s health and is based on the idea that people with 'imperfections' are not worthy of life. It stems from the eugenicist ideology popular during the Interwar period, which was promoted by  Marie Stopes and Margaret Sanger and embraced by Hitler.

One has to feel sympathy for parents faced with such devastating news that their baby will not survive but this is no excuse for terminating a life. Every member of the human family is entitled to live as long as he or she is capable of so-doing

Abortion is not the answer it simply kills babies and wounds mothers.

Research shows that women who have abortions due to poor fetal diagnosis have much more severe and long lasting mental health problems afterward, but support services such as perinatal hospice can help to give a more peaceful experience for the family.

The concept of perinatal hospice care has been around in the US for some time and doctors and nurses see with their own eyes how parents who choose to carry their child to term have a very peaceful experience and enjoy the time they can spend with their child even when the child dies naturally at birth due to a severe handicap. Instead of all the stress of an abortion, parents have an opportunity to have loving contact with a child who may not live long but who can be a blessing for the short time he or she may have to live.

Abortion is not a compassionate response to fatal disability says SPUC Northern Ireland

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SPUC Northern Ireland has responded to the sad case of 'Sarah', a woman who contacted the BBC to say that the law on abortion in Northern Ireland had forced her to travel to England to abort a child diagnosed with anencephaly.

Liam Gibson, SPUC Northern Ireland's development officer, commented:

"Abortion is not a compassionate response to the diagnosis of fatal disability. Babies with fatal disabilities are no less human than other children and share the same right to life as all other human beings. The law in Northern Ireland respects that right, while the British Abortion Act has led to the situation where it is lawful to kill a disabled child up to birth.

Some people may believe that an abortion in case of fatal disability helps women carrying such babies but in fact this is not true. The evidence demonstrates that women who abort their babies for such reasons experience serious psychological suffering. One study in the Netherlands found that, four months after their abortions, 46 per cent of women showed pathological levels of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The tragic nature of this case highlights the desperate need for perinatal hospice care in Northern Ireland. Women with access to perinatal hospice care have a much better prospect of coming to terms with their grief. A perinatal hospice gives parents of babies with a fatal diagnosis the chance to be parents. To hold their child, care for them and share whatever time they have no matter how short. Those experiences help parents cope with their grief in a way that is simply impossible with abortion.

Last year MLAs were given the opportunity to hear about the benefits of perinatal hospice care from Dr Bryon Calhoun, a world-class expert in this field. It is time that the health department looked at ways to provide greater support and care for women and their unborn babies in these difficult and tragic circumstances."

Cliona Johnson, an Irish woman, has recounted movingly her experience of choosing to give birth to an ancephalic child in this YouTubevideo.

Statement of Law against Abortion and Child destruction in Northern Ireland

Mrs. Johanna Higgins LLB launched a report on the current state of pro-life legislation in Northern Ireland, at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly all party pro-life committe on Monday February 6^th in Stormont. The launching of the report titled, “Statement of Law against Abortion and Child destruction in Northern Ireland" was well attended by Assembly Members together with medical, legal experts and pro-life NGO’s.

The report, by Mrs Higgins, who is a barrister of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, Kings Inns Dublin, and the Inner Temple London, has been endorsed by Professor John Keown who is a Barrister and former Senior Lecturer in law at Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow at Churchill College. Keown is now a Professor in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington.

Mrs Higgins in her report considered the implications of the relevant legislation, sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, in the context of the crime of procuring miscarriage/abortion and sections 25(1) and 25(2) of the 1945 Northern Ireland Criminal Justice act under the heading of the Crime of Child destruction

The report is the first legal analysis that clearly shows that the core purpose of the laws against abortion and child destruction in Northern Ireland and it gives health and legal professionals, and public representatives, a better understanding and clarification of the laws that govern abortion in Northern Ireland.

The protection of unborn life however is not a threat to the life of a mother in Northern Ireland. Despite the fact that abortion is illegal and unborn children are protected by law, no woman has, or ever will be, denied life saving treatment even in rare cases where such treatment causes the unintentional death of an unborn child.

Mrs. Higgins told the meeting that it was important to look at both the issue of protection of unborn life and the preservation of the life of a mother as two separate but vitally important issues. The pro-abortion movement mangle up the issues in an emotive way highlighting only the life of the mother. Senior doctors have agreed (and this is recorded in Hansard) that while protecting unborn life there are no circumstances where a mother’s life need be endangered

Pat Ramsey MLA told the meeting that Johanna Higgins was a long-standing advisor to the all-party pro-life group and that her report would serve as a template for the medical and legal professions. There are now he said three pieces of hard data that can be used to protect unborn life, Johanna’s report, an action report and the hardcore statistics set out in Patrick Carroll’s recent report Ireland’s Gain.

In response to a question from Liam Gibson of SPUC Pat Ramsey confirmed that the report would be sent to both the Attorney General and the Health Minister.

Jim Wells MLA told the meeting that he applauds Johanna for setting out the law so clearly and in a reference to Patrick Carroll’s report said that had abortion been legalized in Northern Ireland  the statistics show that 80,000 northern Ireland citizens would not be alive today. This is equivalent to a small town

The report is very timely, as the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) will soon issue revised guidelines on abortion in Northern Ireland. Their Guidance on the Termination of Pregnancy: The Law and Clinical Practice in Northern Ireland, was first issued in March 2009. The Guidance was the subject of a Judicial Review sought by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in November 2009 resulting in its withdrawal when the High Court ruled that parts of it were misleading. The subsequently reissued guidance was also challenged by SPUC and found to be in breach of the High Court decision. 

This new document will help to confront the pro-abortion lies constantly reported as truth by the media when they claim that abortion is legal in Northern Ireland in 'certain circumstances'. The killing of an unborn baby in the womb has never been legal under Northern Ireland and the Higgins report is an important step in ensuring that this remains the case.

SPUC Northern Ireland to hold pro-life conference in March 2012

 Liam Gibson (pictured), SPUC's Northern Ireland development officer, reports that SPUC will hold a conference in Norther Ireland in March 2012 to combat insidious government policies which lead to abortion. The day conference will be held in the Belfast Conference Hotel.

Liam writes:

Since the early 1980s the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has worked with Northern Ireland’s politicians in blocking attempts by the abortion lobby to the introduce the Abortion Act to the Province.

In addition, in July 2010 Northern Ireland's health department withdrew its interim guidance on abortion, following SPUC's two successful court challenges in May 2009 and in December/November 2009.

With the success of the peace process the threat of the Act being imposed from Westminster has significantly diminished. Nevertheless, Northern Ireland has been badly affected by the same social policies which have so seriously damaged family life across Europe and north America.

In recent months various media stories have highlighted the dangerous trend toward the increasing sexualisation of children. At the same time politicians have lamented the lack of responsibility taken by parents for the behaviour of their children. Despite these concerns, it remains government policy to facilitate recreational sex among underage children by supplying them with powerful chemical steroids and abortifacients without the knowledge of their parents.

Supporters of this policy claim it is necessary to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. However, 26 years after the Gillick ruling allowed family planning clinics to provide birth control to underage children, the conception rate for teenage girls remains notoriously high. In England and Wales over half the recorded pregnancies among mothers under the age of 18 end in abortion. It’s simply impossible to calculate how many early abortions occur as a result of the so-called morning-after pill and other forms of abortifacient birth control drugs and devices. Other consequences of this policy include the epidemic level of sexually-transmitted infections among young people, often leading to infertility and serious health problems in later life.

Happily, political developments have reached a point where it is now possible for the pro-life movement to call on the Northern Ireland Assembly to re-examine some of the anti-family policies which have been in place for decades.

With a view to preparing the way for a re-evaluation of public policy in this area, SPUC will be hosting a conference in Belfast, 10 March 2012 to discuss this and related issues. Professor David Paton will be a principle speaker at the conference and will present his research into the effects of the British government’s disastrous teenage pregnancy strategy.

Other speakers will include Jim Wells MLA, the deputy chair of the Stormont health committee and Pat Ramsey MLA, the deputy chair of the Assembly’s all-party pro-life group.

For further information about the conference write to Liam Gibson at liamgibson@spuc.org.uk or telephone (02890) 778018.

Northern Ireland abortion guidance

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children have issued an update on the current position regarding the provision of abortion guidance in Northern Ireland through their NI development officer Liam Gibson, who issued the following resumé of the current situation:

"The consultation on the latest proposed guidance on abortion law and clinical practice in Northern Ireland finished on Friday 22 October. This consultation was a result of SPUC’s legal victory last year when the High Court ordered the withdrawal of the health department’s original guidance. SPUC’s success was a serious setback for both the department of health and the abortion advocates who had hoped to use guidelines to undermine Northern Ireland’s abortion law in the same way the euthanasia lobby undermined the law on assisted suicide. The original guidance had the potential to make abortion more readily available in the province and would have forced pro-life doctors to facilitate abortion by referral. SPUC therefore had no choice but to seek a judicial review.

The High Court singled out flaws in two crucial areas, counselling and conscientious objection. The importance of these issues is underlined by the fact that the problems in these sections meant the entire guidance had to be withdrawn. Despite this, however, the health officials were so determined to press ahead with the guidance that it was quickly reissued without the sections on counselling and conscientious objection. It was only after SPUC was granted permission to begin a second court action, that the health department finally withdrew the entire document and called the consultation process which has just ended.

The new proposals contain many of the problems of the original guidance. For example:

* the need for specialised counselling for women traumatised byabortion is ignored
* there are no proposals for comprehensive monitoring procedures to ensure doctors comply with the law
* it lacks a forthright rejection of eugenic abortion
* it misinterprets statements on conscientious objection from the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

But the most serious difficulty with the new version of the guidance is that it has failed to take on board the criticisms of the High Court regarding conscientious objection. Section 4.2 describes the circumstances where “a practitioner or other healthcare professional may not refuse to participate in a termination procedure”. It describes these circumstances as including “where the life of the woman is in danger”. The High Court ruled that the same statement in the original guidance failed to make sufficiently clear whether such circumstances would include a threat to life on mental health grounds. Remarkably this passage still appears in the reissued guidance.

Pro-life efforts to date have resulted in gradual improvements but the overall tone of the guidance still reflects a broadly permissive interpretation of abortion law in Northern Ireland. Ultimately, the ministers in the Executive will have to give their approval to the guidance before it can be published. Until then the pro-life movement must continue to call on politicians to ensure the final version of the guidance establishes highest possible levels of protection for children, their mothers and members of the medical profession."

Major Abortion Conference at the Slieve Donard Resort & Spa, Newcastle, Co. Down. 7th/8th October 2010.

Despite the fact that abortion is illegal in Ireland – north and south The Family Planning Association (FPA) and The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) have organised a joint conference on Abortion to take place at the Slieve Donard Resort & Spa, Newcastle, Co. Down. 7th/ 8th October 2010.

The holding of this conference in Northern Ireland appears to be a response to the fact that the Health Board recommendations on abortion had to be withdrawn following a judicial review sought by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

European Life Network is appealing to readers to contact the hotel and object firmly but politely to the holding of this conference.

SPUC Welcomes withdrawal of flawed abortion guidance in Northern Ireland

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children have issued a statement welcoming the withdrawal of the flawed guidance on abortion issued by Northern Ireland's health department.

In a letter to Mr Jim Wells, chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly's health committee, the department has announced that it has withdrawn its interim guidance on abortion. The department also announced that it was launching a public consultation on the guidance.

Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland told the media:

"We are very pleased that the health minister has withdrawn the interim guidance. This was the aim of the SPUC's application for a judicial review, due to be heard in September. The health minister has done the sensible thing by withdrawing the guidance. Otherwise he would have been ordered by the courts for a second time to withdraw it.

"When we challenged the original guidance in the High Court last year, the judge rejected a request from the department that it should be allowed to withdraw only the sections on counselling and conscientious objection. Health officials simply ignored this ruling. They quickly re-published the guidance with those sections left out. Otherwise the document was unchanged.

"Both the information given to women and the rights of medical personnel are central to clinical practice. We believe that any guidance which says nothing about these issues is fundamentally flawed, and should never have been published. The department finally seems to have accepted that.

"Until now, the health department has acted in a high-handed and belligerent manner regarding the guidance. The department appeared determined to pursue its own agenda, rather than apply the law. We will be working closely with pro-life members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and its health committee to ensure that the department's consultation does not result in the rights of women, unborn children or the medical profession being undermined."

SPUC granted judicial review of Northern Ireland's guidance on abortion

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC Northern Ireland ), report that the High Court in Belfast has granted an application to SPUC for a judicial review of the Northern Ireland health department's guidance on abortion.

Mr Justice Weatherup allowed the application on the grounds that the department had erred in law in its view of the law on abortion in Northern Ireland, as summarised in the guidance, that the guidance is misleading and/or does not accurately portray the law on abortion in Northern Ireland and in publishing the guidance in its present form the Department was mistaken in a number of significant ways

Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland said: "We are very grateful to have the opportunity to present the issues that were not properly examined during the consultation, particularly the recommendations of the Stormont health committee. We hope that the department will now be reasonable and redraft the guidance which were fundamentally flawed and need radical revision."

It is understood that the health department have been given until Sept 1st to reply and all other respondants must reply before September 30th. the case has been scheduled for October 27-28.

New Northern Ireland guidelines on abortion fundamentally flawed

Guidance issued by Northern Ireland's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) on the circumstances in which abortion can be performed in Norther Ireland, is fundamentally flawed according to John Smeaton Executive director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). Mr Smeaton has also issued a clear warning that unless these guidelines are amended to reflect the true state of affairs, the policy could face a judicial review.

Mrs Betty Gibson, chairwoman of SPUC Northern Ireland, said: "Abortion is a criminal offence in Northern Ireland not a medical procedure. A medical intervention to save the life of a pregnant woman is lawful, even if it risks the death of her unborn child. However, it is never lawful to perform any operation solely aimed at taking the life of a child. This remains the law and the guidance published by the department of health cannot change that.

"The guidelines are incorrect in relation to a medical professional's refusal to facilitate an abortion. The DHSSPS guidance cites advice from the General Medical Council in an attempt to convince objecting doctors that they should refer women to a colleague who will approve the abortion. However, no-one can be forced to co-operate in the performance of a criminal offence.

"Doctors should remember that GMC advice also states: 'Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and health. To justify that trust you must show respect for human life and you must: Make the care of your patient your first concern.'

"Medical professionals have a duty to have respect for life and an ethical and legal duty of care owed to an unborn child as a patient. It is unacceptable for the health department guidelines to require anyone to put in place arrangements to facilitate the intentional killing of a child through abortion. On the contrary, a doctor has a moral and legal duty not to be involved in the deliberate killing of one of his or her patients.

"We believe the department of health has not listened to the concerns expressed by the Northern Ireland Health Committee. As a result these guidelines are fundamentally flawed. At present we are considering all of the options available to us to ensure that the law is fully reflected in the guidelines. If the department wishes to avoid a judicial review of this document then it must introduce serious changes right away

FPA DVD for schoolchildren is a glorified advertisement for abortion

Fiorella Nash has sent me the following review:

"The Family Planning Association (FPA) in the UK has produced a DVD entitled Why Abortion?, intended for schoolchildren as young as 14. In some respects it contains few surprises. The scenarios used in the DVD are intended to portray abortion as a sensible, altruistic decision, whilst the arguments against abortion are not mentioned at all. Pro-lifers are demonised as angry, sneering individuals who wave banners displaying the word 'Murderers', or who accuse their friends of being murderers when they announce that they have had an abortion. An accompanying leaflet claims that 'in countries where abortion is legal, some individuals and groups violently oppose abortion. 'In one scenario, a religious girl who has always been pro-life declares to her pro-life boyfriend: 'It’s not about beliefs and ideals any more, it’s about realities. I just don’t want this baby', whilst the group of teenage commentators argue that 'churches shouldn’t moralise or dictate', 'no matter what your religion you have to do what’s right for you' and 'you never know how you’re going to feel about something like this until it happens.'

"Pro-life doctors come off worst of all. Young people are asked: 'Some doctors and nurses are anti-choice. Is it okay for them to promote their personal, moral viewpoints?' Not one of the teenagers in the scripted discussion supports the pro-life position. The reasons why doctors refuse to be involved with abortion are not explained. Women are encouraged to check the views of doctors beforehand and 'vote with their feet.'

"Young people are warned about pro-life counselling services. The DVD is peppered with the usual arguments for abortion, backstreet abortion (see some counter-arguments here), a woman’s right to choose etc, with no attempt being made at all throughout the DVD to confront the real moral arguments surrounding abortion. Prenatal development is not mentioned once, and the potential risk of breast cancer and post-abortion trauma are dismissed as 'myths', as is the fact that so-called emergency contraception is abortifacient.

"Most insidiously, the DVD was developed in Northern Ireland, and the teenage commentators are clearly based in Northern Ireland to give the impression that the people of Northern Ireland want the Abortion Act extended there, when the reality is completely different. The lack of abortion on demand in Northern Ireland is portrayed as a crass injustice, rather than the will of the people to protect life.

"This so-called resource contains information on private abortion facilities such as BPAS, which constitutes little more than product placement in the classroom. In an all-too characteristic display of hypocrisy, this glorified advertising campaign for abortion is dressed up as 'balanced and accurate information' designed 'to contribute to a more open and less judgemental debate'. Parents must fight this DVD being shown at their children’s schools as a matter of urgency."

Pro-abort MP told to get lost

Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney, just can't leave Northern Ireland alone. After her failed attempt at imposing abortion on Northern Ireland, the minister for Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward, has spelt out in plain English that Westminster will not extend the 1967 Abortion Act to the province and that any debate on the issue should take place within Northern Ireland's own legislative assembly.

Undeterred, Ms Abbott intends to continue her campaign to interfere in other people's legislative business and has said she will propose a private bill to bring abortion to Northern Ireland.

Bernie Smyth of Precious Life had this to say: "My message to Diane Abbott is butt out of Northern Ireland and stop interfereing in our protection of our unborn children."

Petition opposing the extension of the abortion act to Northern Ireland

A petition opposing the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland which was recently launched on the Number 10 website (The official website of the UK Prime Minister Gordon Browne), has already attracted about 3500 signatures. It is extremely important that as many people as possible sign this petition as another petition supporting the extension of the act to Northern Ireland was launched by the pro-abortion Family Planning Association FPA. Whilst the extension of the abortion act to Northern Ireland would affect Ireland as a whole, signatories of the petition must either be British citizens or residents. We therefore appeal to all our British readers to sign this petition if you have not already done so.


You can access the Pro-Life petition by clicking on: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Anti-Abortion/

Prayers for Northern Ireland

John Smeaton has offered his support to a paper calling for forty days of prayer and fasting to stop the Abortion Act being extended to Northern Ireland. He points out that SPUC is not a religious organisation but there are precedents for actions such as these during times of crisis. King George VI called the people to 'prayer and dedication' during the Normandy Landings of 1944.

The proposed period of prayer and fasting is between 20th August and 4th October (excluding Sundays).

The Abortion Lobby's Massive Deception

It says something for the desperation of the abortion lobby that they are - yet again - resorting to lies as part of their campaign to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. According to a post on John Smeaton's blog, Diane Abbott has claimed to the British press that women in Northern Ireland are “facing conditions more reminiscent of the 19th century,” and that “[m]ost working-class women must take their chances with the backstreet abortionist.”

She offers no evidence to back up her comments, presumably because there is no evidence to support her position. Indeed, if the British media cared to challenge her comments, they would discover that the 'conditions more reminiscent of the 19th century' Ms Abbott speaks of include a health system which boasts of the lowest maternal mortality rate in the UK.

As Liam Gibson, SPUC, is quoted as saying:

“No-one in Northern Ireland voted for Diane Abbott, Evan Harris or any of the other pro-abortion extremists in Parliament and yet these MPs seem to think they are our colonial masters and that we must do as they say."

Ironically, Bernard Nathanson, the former abortion practitioner and co-founder of NARAL, has just been interviewed on the very subject of backstreet abortion. Nathanson oversaw 75,000 abortions at his U.S. clinic before the advent of ultrasound forced him to accept the horrific reality of abortion. Now a pro-life campaigner, Nathanson is quoted as saying:

"We claimed that between five and ten thousand women a year died of botched abortions. The actual figure was closer to 200 to 300 and we also claimed that there were a million illegal abortions a year in the United States and the actual figure was close to 200,000. So, we were guilty of massive deception."

This massive deception by the abortion lobby continues and must be challenged in the media and at government level. Voters in England, Scotland and Wales need to write to their MPs to expose this lie once and for all and to ask politicians such as Diane Abbott to leave Northern Ireland alone.

Proposals to Impose Abortion on Northern Ireland

A group of MPs headed by Diane Abbott (Labour) have tabled an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to extend Britain's Abortion laws to Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland have consistently voiced their opposition to any change in the province's abortion law but some Westminster MPs would rather impose their agendas on people than respect democracy. Betty Gibson of SPUC stated:

"This attempt to impose abortion on Northern Ireland is extremist, anti-democratic and arrogant. The leaders of all four major political parties and the four main Churches right across Northern Ireland's traditional divide have written to the government and all Westminster MPs calling on them to allow the issue of abortion law to be decided by the Province's devolved government."

SPUC is offering free Little Feet badges (the international symbol of the pro-life movement) to the people of Northern Ireland to show their opposition to the amendment. It is time and gone time for Westminster to take the people of Northern Ireland seriously.

Pro-Abortionists targeting Northern Ireland

There seems to be determination on the part of the pro-abortionists to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland and several attempts have been made to do so within the past year. The most recent attempts coincide with the debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill in Britain which has now been postponed until the next parliamentary session. The Daily Telegraph reported last Saturday that the decision to postpone the bill was related to proposed amendment by Emily Thornberry to extend the Act to Northern Ireland but was prevented by Gordon Brown due to the unprecedented level of unity across the North's political divide which believes the question of abortion law should be decided in Stormont and not Westminster. Just prior to the postponement of the bill the Family Planning Association (FPA) began a publicity campaign on the import of RU 486 and called for the liberalisation of the law in Northern Ireland, which was probably intended to coincide with the debate on the extension of the Act since they would have been aware of Emily Thornberry's motion and would not have expected Gordon Brown to postpone the bill.

At the same time Northern Ireland’s Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety launched yet another consultation on proposed guidelines for the termination of pregnancy in the province. The consultation has been launched during the holiday season when the Assembly is in recess and the closing date for submissions is mid-September, giving politicians very little time to respond. As Betty Gibson, SPUC’s chairwoman in Northern Ireland, noted, this is a ploy with which pro-life campaigners are all too familiar. By introducing the consultation at a time when the minimun number of people will be aware of it until it is too late, the hope is that it will slip under the radar unchallenged.

Fortunately, the pro-life movement is a step ahead of the game and may have the chance to act. Betty Gibson warns: "These draft guidelines contain some very serious flaws, not least the failure to acknowledge the suffering frequently experienced by women after abortion. We are determined that the final version of the guidelines should warn of the terrible psychological damage associated with abortion."