Abortion supported by majority - report
NEW research suggests two-thirds of people in Northern Ireland support abortion in certain circumstances, pro-choice campaigners have claimed.
However, anti-abortion activists rallied at Stormont over the weekend and insisted that they spoke for the majority in Northern Ireland.
Termination is currently illegal in the Province unless the mother's health is at risk but MPs in Westminster are this week set to consider proposals to bring the law into line with the rest of the UK, where abortion is permitted.
Legalisation would be supported by 62 per cent of local people, according to the survey by the Family Planning Association, but only in extreme circumstances such as rape and incest.
All the major political parties in Northern Ireland oppose any change in the laws and are angry at the notion of Westminster MPs ruling on what they see as a devolved matter.
However, the FPA claims the findings of its research indicate that the politicians are out of step with public feeling in the region.
The group claims it is a myth that people in Northern Ireland do not want to see abortion available under any circumstances.
Only 20 per cent of those questioned said abortion should not be legal in cases of rape or incest.
Dr Audrey Simpson, director of FPA in Northern Ireland, said: "It is time that the Assembly faced up to the realities of the situation that people in Northern Ireland support the right to choose."
At the weekend both pro and anti-abortion groups took to the streets of Northern Ireland.
The battle between Sinn Fein and the DUP over the devolution of policing and justice means that abortion – considered a matter of criminal justice – is decided at Westminster.
While many individual MLAs at Stormont support extending the Act to the Province, the main parties in government are opposed.
At Stormont on Saturday, DUP MPs Iris Robinson and Jeffrey Donaldson were among unionists who attended the Rally for Life alongside other anti-abortion campaigners, politicians and Church leaders.
SDLP Assembly member Pat Ramsey said the rally was "a march for civil rights to defend the most fundamental civil right of all – the right to life."
He added: "The SDLP is a pro-life party and steadfastly remains so.
"The protection of life and that of the unborn child lies at the heart of our principles and policies."
Elsewhere on Saturday, pro-choice groups rallied in Belfast, Londonderry and Lisburn.
Members of the Alliance for Choice gathered in groups of 40 to symbolise the 40 women a week who have to leave Northern Ireland every week for abortions.
Goretti Horgan, from Alliance for Choice, hit out at the Catholic bishops who last week linked the peace process to their opposition to abortion.
She dismissed their suggestion that MPs who voted to extend the Act "may be seen as intruding" on the peace process.
"The notion that extending the Abortion Act to the north would put the peace process at risk is nonsense," she said.
In Londonderry and Lisburn women wore black and white facemasks which they said was to symbolise the invisibility of the 40 women who travel each week across the Irish Sea.
In Belfast they wore white T-shirts with the slogan, 'It could be me'.
Alliance Party MLA Anna Lo supports the extension of the Act to Northern Ireland and said it would be very sad if efforts failed.
"I think this is the only chance for a long, long time for Northern Ireland to have this liberal law."
But Dr Simpson said the FPA statistics "cannot be ignored" and added: "If the elected members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are not willing to listen to public opinion and give women in Northern Ireland the same human rights as women in the rest of the UK, it is up to Westminster MPs to be the voice of Northern Irish women."
MPs will vote on Wednesday on an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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