No sign of abortion amendment
Our four main party leaders have signed a letter condemning it, and our four main church leaders have backed them, but today, as MPs debate the time limits for abortion, there is no sign of any Westminster amendment intended to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.
Yesterday the DUP put out another in a series of statements criticising the Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris for tabling a "disturbing" amendment designed to "impose a liberalised abortion regime on the Province". It's true that Mr Harris has previously been quoted as supporting the extension of abortion here Observer article June 2007. However when I spoke to the Oxford West MP last week he told me he had no such amendment and was not dealing with the issue.
It's not impossible that such an amendment could be tabled at a later stage. One of our local MPs told me he was getting some flak from English MPs. He said they took the view that if Northern Ireland MPs wanted to interfere in the time limits for abortion in England, then maybe English MPs should interefere in the ban on abortion here.
But so far there has been no amendment tabled - so, if that remains the case, were fears of such a move missplaced or has the united nature of the local anti-abortion campaign deterred English MPs from tacking this issue on to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill?
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Am I alone in thinking the legislation here should be brought into line with that in the rest of the UK?
The law here does not prevent abortion, women simply travel to England. All it does is make things more difficult in an already stressful situtation.
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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises that children need legal protection before as well as after birth. Our politicians should be congratulated on defending the right to life of unborn children but they also deserve credit for defending the right of people here to decide issues like abortion law for themselves. If Westminster imposes the Abortion Act on Northern Ireland it will seriously undermine the credibility of devolution and the idea of a government that everyone can give their allegiance to.
When discussing abortion it has to be understood that in every abortion there are two victims, one dead and one wounded. The law here actually protects women and children from abortion.
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In answer to point 2,the law here does not protect anyone - as point 1 says women merely have to get on a plane or boat to get an abortion. The number of women who do this is between 1 to 2 thousand a year
i think the position of our MP's and MLA's is extremely hypocritical and dishonest. If they are so concerned about abortion they should be campaigning on a UK wide basis to ban the procedure. This particularly applies to those of a unionist persuasion who allegedly want to be part of the UK.
This matter is not a devolved issue in Scotland or Wales, so there is no reason why the legislation should not be extended here. Our MP's have no problem in voting on the issue which doesn't directly affect people here (according to the politicans!). If they want interfere with GB business then they should be prepared to abide by the same laws - a similar issue to Scottish MP's voting on English issues in order to get English legislation through.
I find it quite laughable to have the idea of giving my allegiance to a bunch of people who I have absolutely nothing in common with - mist if them are there to serve their own petty small minded agendas.
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I don't have an opinion on abortion, and that is because I am a man. It should be left up to women - individual women - to decide whether or not abortion is right for them.
I may be wrong, but I can't see either side of shouty, placard-waving preachers in this argument being of any help to a woman who is in a situation where abortion comes into her thinking.
On the other point, now that we have English MPs merrily extending the West Lothian question to NI, there needs to be some thought put into exactly what laws are "federal", and which ones are devolved.
Otherwise this whole UK-wide devolution idea could fail, and as we all know the consequences of that would potentially be more serious here than in any other part of the country.
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Saying: "I don't have an opinion on abortion and that is because I am a man," (Point 4 RJ) sounds like: I don't care about abortion because is not my problem. At least people who argue in favour of abortion usually do so from a sense of compassion for women. They're wrong because women suffer traumatically after abortion, but many of them don't realise this.
Would anyone argue that they had no opinion on domestic violence because it doesn't effect them? Or say I have no opinion on child abuse because I'm not a child? Abortion is child abuse because it results in the death of a child. If you don't know the facts about abortion then find out, there can be no excuse for not having an opinion.
The law in Northern Ireland does protect women and children since there are children alive today who would have been aborted had the operation been available in Northern Ireland. Some women feel they have no choice but to go to England for an abortion but the fact that the law cannot protect everyone does not mean it is ineffective. We will never entirely eliminate domestic violence or child abuse but no one would consider their legalisation.
Finally, the British Government believes that the issue of abortion legislation should be decided in Stormont so why shouldn't Unionists politicians hold the same position? The Scottish politicians are also pressing for the devolution of this issue.
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To me, "I don't have an opinion on abortion and that is because I am a man" sounds like, "I don't have an opinion on abortion and that is because I am a man".
If I had meant it to sound like anything else, I would have said it differently. Please do not extend your shouty, placard waving preaching to presume you know how to represent my thoughts better than me.
Abortion is right for those women who feel it is right for them.
The real domestic abuse is forcing a woman who does not want, cannot care for, or will not love a child to carry it for nine months based on a medieval religious fanaticism whose chief aim is to swell its following, then disguising it as morals. It's pathetic, transparent rubbish.
The real child abuse is forcing a situation where one day a child will be told, "Your mother didn't want you".
I must thank you though, FritzGerlich. Thanks to your post - especially the bit where you compared me to a defender of wife-beaters and paedophiles - I now have an opinion on abortion. You have just swelled the ranks of the pro-choice lobby by one. Congratulations.
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The lack of equality for women in Northern Ireland as regards abortion is the major issue - why should one law apply to someone in Belfast but not to someone in Bedford? This is a highly emotive issue, and it is not a decision that most women take lightly, and many of the arguments made by those who want to ban abortion completely are patronising to women. I don't subscribe to the "no uterus; no opinion" school of thought, but agree with RJ that this is an issue that women should be allowed to make for themselve. Irrespective of the moral arguments and the current legal position, over 1,500 women from Northern Ireland make the trip to the UK every year, which only makes an already difficult situation worse - a statistic forgotten by some.
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