NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY OPPOSES EXTENSION OF ABORTION ACT

BELFAST (CWNews.com) - Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly have voted by an overwhelming majority to oppose the extension of Britain's 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.

The original motion, proposed by Jim Wells, Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member for South Down, was supported by 79 of the 108 Assembly members.

Abortion law in Northern Ireland is governed by the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act, a 1939 court case, and the 1945 Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Act.

(The 1967 Act, which currently does not apply to Northern Ireland, allows abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation where a woman's physical or mental health is at risk. In 1998, 177,871 abortions were carried out in England and Wales, most of them prior to the 24-week limit. Sixty three abortions were carried out after 25 weeks' gestation, including two performed at 36 weeks.)

During the four-hour debate in Belfast on June 20, Wells told the Assembly: "Since the 1967 Act became law, 5.3 million abortions have been carried out in Great Britain -- more than the populations of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic combined. The main purpose of my motion is to ensure that this legalized carnage is not permitted in Northern Ireland by way of an extension of the 1967 Act to this part of the United Kingdom."

Wells said that the law in Northern Ireland only allowed abortion where the pregnancy would lead to serious medical or psychological problems which would endanger the mother's life, the mother was mentally subnormal, there was proven contact with German measles or there was a substantial genetic risk of having a mentally-handicapped child.

"As a result of this more restrictive legislation, the number of abortions carried out in the province is quite low," he said. "There were, for instance, 77 abortions in the year 1997-98. In addition to this, women can travel from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion. The total number carrying out this journey peaked in 1990, when 1,855 women went to Liverpool or London. This declined substantially to 1,572 in 1997."

He added, "It is estimated that, in total, 45,000 women from Northern Ireland have had abortions in Britain since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act. If the Act had been introduced in the province 33 years ago, we could have expected some 140,000 abortions, yet the number is less than a third of that.

"On leaving Northern Ireland, (former Northern Secretary) Dr. Mo Mowlam said that her biggest regret was that she had failed to find an appropriate time to extend the Abortion Act here. It is my hope that her wish will never be granted."

An amendment to Wells' proposal, tabled by the Women's Coalition, suggested that the matter should be referred to the Assembly's Health Committee, which would report back to the Assembly within six months.

Monica McWilliams, Assembly member for South Belfast, told the Assembly: "The current situation in Northern Ireland is a mess and desperately needs to be reviewed.

"We need a range of advice from gynecologists, those working in obstetrics, in public health, in primary and secondary schools, in education and in sex education. We also need the people from both the Alliance for Choice and Pro-Life to come before the Committee."

McWilliams blamed the past lack of sex education in schools for "the tragedies many of us are discussing." She said abortion was not permitted in Northern Ireland in cases of rape or incest, and she added that the current situation should be considered in terms of the Human Rights Act of 1998 and the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights. She told the Assembly that doctors who were making "difficult decisions every day in relation to fetal abnormalities" were acting illegally.

"We want legislation on policies that do not create, in David Trimble's words, 'a cold house' in Northern Ireland," she told the debate. "We would prefer it to be a welcoming house, which acknowledges our diversity.

"If members support our amendment, they will not be promoting abortion. They will be asking for a considered opinion on the situation in Northern Ireland."

But the amendment was defeated by 48 votes to 15. The Democratic Unionists and the moderate-nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party, voted against, Sinn Fein, the Republican party, and the Progressive Unionists voted in favor and the Alliance Party and Ulster Unionists divided on the issue. The Wells motion was accepted without a vote.

Afterward, Wells said: "It was remarkable to see the alliances formed in support of my motion, with cross-party and cross-denominational differences set aside.The idea of the motion was to put down a marker for the United Kingdom government, to let them know that any extension of the 1967 Abortion Act into Northern Ireland would be in the face of united opposition from the local community."

Georgie McCormick, manager of training and services for the north's Family Planning Association, disagreed. "We were disappointed with the outcome of the vote," she said. We would like to see an Act that would allow women to have terminations here if they choose, something that would suit our own culture.

"We have our own Assembly now and I don't see why we can't draw up our own Act, rather than import the 1967 Act from Britain.

"I was also disappointed with the quality of the debate in the Assembly. The arguments didn't sound as if they were coming from a professional, informed standpoint, but from members' own value systems."

But the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children welcomed the Assembly vote. Betty Gibson, chairman of SPUC Northern Ireland, said: "The overwhelming rejection of liberal abortion by the Assembly sends a clear message to the pro-abortionists in the House of Commons and in Belfast-based bodies such as the Human Rights Commission. They will not succeed in imposing abortion on demand on the people here.

"It will also show the pro-abortion lobby in the Irish Republic that they cannot use Northern Ireland as an excuse to try to undermine the ban (on abortion) that the Irish people voted to enshrine in their constitution."

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