Last night, MPs voted by 431 votes to 89 for regulations allowing the Northern Ireland Secretary to directly impose abortion services on Northern Ireland. The vote took place on the 53rd anniversary of the implementation of the 1967 Abortion Act in the rest of the United Kingdom, which has led to the death of over 9 million unborn babies.
Contact your MP
SPUC has issued a rallying call to pro-lifers to contact their MP.
SPUC’s Alithea Williams said: “It is hugely disappointing that so many MPs voted to strong-arm Northern Ireland into implementing this deadly regime. You can look up how your MP voted here, and we encourage you to write to your MP, either to thank them for voting against the regulations, or to ask for an explanation if they supported them.”
What do these regulations do?
The Regulations, which were voted on last night rather than today as expected, give Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis wide-ranging powers to direct the commission and promotion of abortion services in Northern Ireland.
Liam Gibson, SPUC Northern Ireland Officer explains: “These Regulations give the Secretary of State the power to compel the First and Deputy First Ministers, Ministers in the Executive and local departments to take any action he deems necessary to comply with the radical agenda contained in the report of the United Nations CEDAW committee. This includes the promotion of abortion in schools and the provision of abortion to underage children without the knowledge of their parents.
“It is a disgraceful power grab by the Westminster Government, which fatally undermines the devolution settlement, as well as condemning untold numbers of unborn babies to death.”
“Repeal Section 9”
On Monday, MPs debated the Regulations in a delegated legislation committee. Pro-life MPs made strong speeches, both pointing out the constitutional problems with the legislation, and standing up for unborn children.
Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, pointed out that the CEDAW regulations also call on the Government to: “Adopt a strategy to combat gender-based stereotypes regarding women’s primary role as mothers”. She said that as a mother to three children, she finds this patronising, and summed up the situation saying: “The regulations tear up the principles of devolution and disregard the democratic will of the people of Northern Ireland. They could enforce a potentially unsafe abortion regime and represent an overreach of the state into the role of motherhood.”
“The regulations are unnecessary, dangerous and overreaching, and they threaten the trust and tolerance on which our Union depends,” Ms Cates said: “I urge the Government not to press ahead, but instead to repeal section 9 and restore agency, democracy and dignity to the people of Northern Ireland.”
Be a voice for the voiceless
Carla Lockhart, the DUP MP for Upper Bann, refuted the assertion that the regulations are required by international law. She also spoke passionately about how pathways need to be in place to help women to choose life. But, she said, the unborn must not be forgotten.
“I hear much about the women, and I empathise fully with them, yet I hear so little about the unborn. I hear so little about the baby being aborted. Unfortunately, those little babies do not have a voice, so I feel that I have to have a voice for those that are going to be aborted, their life ended so brutally in the womb… We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’, and all unique individuals. As I left for London this morning, I left my little two-year-old boy Charlie, and walked away from him with a broken heart, thinking of the millions of babies whose lives have already been ended, and those that will potentially, under the regulations, be ended in Northern Ireland.”
Ms Lockhart concluded: “I assure everyone that the battle has not ended and the last has not been heard from me and many in this Parliament who will continue to be a voice for the voiceless, and stand up for both lives in every pregnancy.”