Opinion

Martin O'Brien: Assembly must return to stop abortion on demand

Baroness Nuala O'Loan has described moves to impose abortion change in Northern Ireland as "a complete denial of democracy"
Baroness Nuala O'Loan has described moves to impose abortion change in Northern Ireland as "a complete denial of democracy" Baroness Nuala O'Loan has described moves to impose abortion change in Northern Ireland as "a complete denial of democracy"

THE silence is deafening.

As deafening as it is shameful.

Politicians and political parties that so many of us vote for, who supposedly oppose what they would normally call the imposition of undemocratic British rule in this part of Ireland, should hang their heads in shame.

They know who they are.

We know who they are.

Sinn Féin. SDLP. And their leaderships.

Mary Lou McDonald. Michelle O'Neill. Colum Eastwood.

They are all eerily and pusillanimously quiet about the Westminster Parliament's decision (barring a return of the Assembly by October 21) to impose on the north - where abortion is supposed to be a devolved matter and always only legally permitted to preserve the life of the mother - the most liberal abortion regime in these islands, without any consultation whatsoever.

And without the support of a single Northern Ireland MP or NI resident peer who votes at Westminster.

About what Baroness Nuala O'Loan, in a powerful article in the Irish News on August 8, described as "a complete denial of democracy to the people of Northern Ireland".

And what the northern Catholic bishops have described as "the hijacking of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill for purposes for which it was never intended" and the reckless undermining of the principle of devolution at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement "which will have a devastating impact on the right to life of unborn children".

So, amid the impending madness of Brexit something else, something utterly Kafkaesque, is in train and no main nationalist political party has the will or the guts to challenge it.

Shame on you, Sinn Féin, SDLP.

As things stand (in the absence of the return of the Assembly by October 21) we are heading for unregulated abortion up to 28 weeks in Northern Ireland from October 22.

As Nuala O'Loan (who along with Lord Eames and others tried to halt this legislation) pointed out in her article "abortion will be legal up to 28 weeks, for any reason, including, for example where the baby has a disability or is of a different sex from which the parents want, unless it can be proved that the baby would have been capable of being born alive".

Why the silence from parties whose websites and social media accounts are crammed with any number of statements about everything from matters of high politics to the priming of the parish pump?

One can only conclude that they are willing to cynically sit back and let this happen so that particularly contentious "rights issues" - legislation redefining marriage here has also been similarly passed by Parliament - are taken care of in Westminster because they might not be resolved to their satisfaction at Stormont.

That is shameful and unworthy of the noble calling of politics which should be about building the common good.

The place for these matters to be resolved and decided upon is here in Northern Ireland, in our Assembly and nowhere else, with MLAs free to vote according to conscience.

Of course, abortion is the most contentious and sensitive of issues on which good people often honesty disagree.

As it concerns the sanctity and inviolability of human life itself and the right to protection of the most vulnerable human being, the human being in the womb, it is of a different order from other issues.

Both Lives Matter (bothlivesmatter.org), an organisation which has the support of people of all faiths and none in Northern Ireland, points out that the legislation set to be imposed by Westminster goes far beyond what are termed the 'hard cases' such as when babies have been diagnosed with so-called fatal foetal abnormalities or where pregnancies arise from sexual crime: "They will remove every legal protection from every unborn baby under 28 weeks."

There are numerous reasons why our politicians should roll up their sleeves and get the Assembly working again.

Stopping abortion on demand and saving lives is a particularly good reason.