Northern Ireland

Dawn McAvoy: Our politicians must choose the lives of our unborn children

Dawn McAvoy of pro-life group Both Lives Matter
Dawn McAvoy of pro-life group Both Lives Matter Dawn McAvoy of pro-life group Both Lives Matter

RIGHT now, today, our law on abortion in this jurisdiction says that both lives matter.

It strikes a very difficult but delicate balance in recognising and protecting both lives in every pregnancy as far as humanly possible, while giving limited discretion to medical professionals.

Abortions are allowed only in limited circumstances related to risk to the life or mental or physical health of the woman.

Abortion is a devolved issue, but legislation imposed from Westminster in July will come into effect on October 22 unless a new NI Executive is formed. This will introduce a new and radical abortion regime.

Talk of legal change in Northern Ireland around abortion over the last number of years has focussed on what are often termed the ‘hard cases’. These include babies that are not likely to survive birth and babies conceived through rape, incest and sexual crime.

These are incredibly difficult situations which deserve compassion beyond words. Be in no doubt, however, this law change is not about minor changes for the hard cases.

Unless Stormont returns very soon, on October 22, the underpinning law on abortion will be repealed. Every explicit legal protection will be removed from every unborn baby up to 28 weeks in the womb. Abortions will be permitted up to at least viability (around 23-24 weeks).

There are no protections which would prevent abortion because the baby is a girl and the couple wanted a boy.

For the first time in Northern Ireland, babies with disabilities will lose their pre-birth protection.

In England and Wales, where Down's Syndrome is detected in the womb, up to 90 per cent of babies are aborted. Abortion would also be legal for minor ‘defects’ like cleft lip or palette.

However, if this new abortion regime is introduced, the reality is that most babies will be aborted because they are unplanned and/or unwanted.

From Department of Health statistics for 2018 in England and Wales, we know that for every four children born, one is aborted, and that 98 per cent of abortions involved physically healthy women aborting physically healthy babies.

If the law on abortion is repealed on October 22 there will be a legal vacuum for five months until March 31 2020; there will be no legislation and no statutory regulatory framework for abortion provision.

This vacuum is very concerning in itself but even if regulations and guidelines are eventually introduced, they cannot provide the same protections as the criminal law when it comes to protecting women in pregnancy and unborn babies from other people or unsafe and unscrupulous abortion providers.

This is not the case in the Republic of Ireland or even in the rest of GB where unborn children are still protected in law from abortion outside of the legal parameters.

So what? My body, my choice? Right?

The cost of abortion as a choice, for the minority who choose it, is the devaluation of all of our unborn children.

This law means that every unborn baby is worth nothing in law. Every unborn baby, wanted or unwanted, planned or unplanned will lose the protection of law until at least viability.

As a local midwife put it to us, she will be expected to treat one unborn child as the most precious gift in the world and discard another like clinical waste. Human worth utterly dependant on human want.

This law can be stopped if a new Executive is formed on or before October 21. Until then the parties will no doubt continue to blame each other and draw their red lines but many people are urging them, in this critical moment, to choose the lives of our unborn children over language.

Dawn McAvoy

Both Lives Matter

www.bothlivesmatter.org