Trevor Lunn, from the Alliance Party, was one of the MLAs seeking to change the law
Belfast, : The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, the UK’s largest pro-life organisation has welcomed the defeat of moves to liberalise abortion law in Northern Ireland.
The Assembly rejected an attempt to make it lawful to abort children diagnosed with a life limiting condition by 59 votes to 40, and also voted 64 to 30 against an amendment which would have made it lawful to abort those said to have been conceived through criminal sexual activity.
"Effect would have been devastating"
Liam Gibson, SPUC's Northern Ireland development officer said:
"It would be difficult to overestimate the significance of this vote by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Had these proposals become law, their effect would have been devastating.
"Although they were presented as allowing abortion only for a limited number of so-called hard cases, in reality they were an attack on some of the most vulnerable of children and would have led to widespread abortion."
"Children deserve special protection"
Mr Gibson continued: "Experience around the world shows that this kind of proposal is only the thin end of the wedge, and that abortion activists seek to exploit any loophole in the law, to discredit pro-life laws and deny legal protection to all unborn children. Their aim is to erect a false 'right to abortion' in law.
"International law recognises that all members of the human family share the right to life, and that children deserve special protection, including legal protection before as well as after birth.? This vote is a clear rejection of the idea that some children are less worthy of the protection of the law."
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For more detailed comments or to request an interview, please contact Liam Gibson:
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