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The UK’s leading pro-life organisation has welcomed assurances from Theresa May’s government that it will not allow Westminster to impose legalised abortion on Northern Ireland.
During Stella Creasy's emergency debate on repealing sections of the Offences Against the Person Act, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said that "the best forum to debate and resolve these and many other matters is a locally elected Northern Ireland assembly."
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said that the government must now standby the commitments it has given to allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to make decisions about the Province’s abortion laws.
Liam Gibson, development officer for Northern Ireland, said: “Theresa May’s government has been very clear that the devolution settlement means that our abortion laws should be decided by our elected representatives and not by politicians who have no mandate from the people of Northern Ireland. The Labour Party doesn’t even organise in the Province so Labour MPs like Stella Creasy and Diana Johnson are in no position to impose their extreme abortion ideology on us.
“The Offences Against the Person Act, the law that Stella Creasy is trying to overturn, protects both women and children, it has saved the lives of at least 100,000 babies here since 1967 and cannot simply be dismissed as outdated. These abortion extremists have zero respect for the lives of unborn children and show nothing but contempt for the rights of people in Northern Ireland,” he said.
“Mrs May should leave them in no doubt that they cannot dictate abortion law. Giving in to their intimidation would mean her government is morally and politically bankrupt. A climb down now would leave her with no credibility because her assurances would be worthless,” said Mr Gibson.
“Fifty years of abortion in Britain has shown that it can have a devastating impact on women as well. The abortion extremists in the House of Commons say they care about women in Northern Ireland but really what they want is to legalise abortion up to birth for any reason across the whole of the UK. That’s what decriminalisation would mean.
“Abortion is not healthcare. In fact it was recognised after the Second World War as a crime against humanity. It is an act of lethal violence directed at an unborn child and is never justified,” said Mr Gibson.
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