Stella Creasy MP in the House of Commons last night

What is she afraid of?

Pro-abortion MP Stella Creasy last night sought assurances from a Government minister that the people of Northern Ireland would not be consulted on the implementation of an extreme new abortion regime.

Amidst tumultuous scenes in the House of Commons around the possibility of a General Election, the resignation announcement of the Speaker, and the prorogation of Parliament, MPs briefly debated reports on the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, including one on the progress of the abortion law review.

Public must not be consulted

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who was responsible for hijacking the routine governance bill by tabling an amendment requiring the Secretary of State to impose abortion on Northern Ireland, used the opportunity to push forward her pro-abortion agenda.

"We are 35 days away from the possibility that these clauses will become law, so will he [the Minister] give us some more detail?" she asked. "In particular, he talks about consultation. Can he confirm whether there is going to be public involvement in that consultation? It is really important for this House to be clear that, just as we would not ask non-medical professionals to consult on how to conduct a vasectomy, we should not do so when it comes to an abortion."

Alithea Williams, SPUC’s campaigns and parliamentary research assistant, explained the situation, saying: "After ramming through this extreme abortion legislation against the express will of the elected representatives of Northern Ireland, Stella Creasy does not want the public to be consulted on so much as its implementation. What is she afraid of? Perhaps she is worried that public consultation will change the outcome, as happened with the Domestic Abuse bill, when SPUC supporters and others made so many submissions that abortion was left out of it entirely. The huge crowds that gathered in Belfast over the weekend protesting this disgraceful act show that she does indeed have something to fear from consulting the people of Northern Ireland on their own abortion laws."

Don't ignore the people

Several pro-life MPs raised how the public in the Province have been ignored on the issue. Jim Shannon of the DUP said: "I want to put it on record that 60% of those surveyed in a national opinion poll in Northern Ireland said that they did not want any change. I am asking the House today not to make this change against the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland. We had a rally at Stormont where almost 30,000 people walked to retain the rights of the unborn baby in the womb. That has to be preserved."

Women's health compromised

Fiona Bruce MP also spelt out how the rushed legislation will leave unborn babies with no legal protection and put women in danger. If an Executive are not reformed by 21 October, she said,  "the people of Northern Ireland will find themselves in a situation where the provision of abortion, from conception up until the point of viability, which could be as far as 28 weeks, will take place in a complete legal vacuum from 22 October, with no guarantee that anything will be put in place until 31 March 2020. That is unacceptable. It means five months when there will, in effect, be no law regulating abortion at all in Northern Ireland—as I say, these are abortions taking place from conception until just before a baby is capable of being born alive. I said that we should not rush through this legislation when it was originally debated and now we see the results."

"This country has all manner of statutory checks to protect women, including the need for clinics to be vetted and registered, none of which will exist in Northern Ireland," she went on. "How is that good for the health of women in Northern Ireland?"

Blood on their hands

The DUP’s Ian Paisley summed up the situation when he said: "Does the Secretary of State realise that the legacy of what he has announced is complete and total legal chaos from 21 October to March next year? There will be no regulatory framework in place, and anything goes when it comes to the termination of the lives of innocent children. Is that the legacy that he wants? Is that the blood on the hands that he wants?"