Abortion: Ex-Police Ombudsman joins forces with DUP to say GB has treated NI ‘shamefully... like it does not matter’

Baroness Nuala O’Loan (pictured), Lord Morrow, Lord McCrea, and sitting MP for Upper Bann Carla Lockhart, described the Westminster government’s treatment of Northern Ireland as “shameful”.

The new rules, to take effect on March 31, are being imposed on the Province from London, as part of a law passed last year saying if Stormont was not up and running by late October then the Westminster government would shoulder the responsibility for liberalising its abortion laws.

In short, the new law allows abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks; abortions on the grounds of wellbeing of the expectant mother up to 24 weeks; and limitless abortion for foetuses which display signs of disabilities.

Although the vast bulk of abortions happen before the third trimester, the way the rules have been written technically allows termination of disabled foetuses until the point of birth.

However, pro-choice campaigners have announced the new rules do not go far enough, saying they should also make provision for women taking abortion pills themselves at home.

The statement from the DUP trio and Baroness O’Loan (who married SDLP politician Declan O’Loan) said the way the law change has come about “should deeply disturb everyone in Northern Ireland”, saying it has “disenfranchised the people of Northern Ireland”.

It goes on to add: “It is as if either Northern Ireland didn’t exist or that if it does, it does not matter.

“One would not treat a foreign country in this manner if one was on friendly terms with it. And yet, somehow Westminster and Whitehall think this appropriate to treat us in this way...

“The impression given is that the regulations propose abortion on demand to 12 weeks and that, as in the Republic, it can be obtained up to 24 weeks only in narrowly defined situations.

“That, however, is all smoke and mirrors... it is abortion on demand to 24 weeks.”

When it comes to abortion for disability, they said this will mean terminations “for anything from Downs syndrome to cleft palette... once born, ending the life of the baby would be murder, but as long as it is the day before the child would otherwise be born, they can be legally terminated”.

They concluded by pledging to fight the new rules in the Assembly and Parliament, saying: “It is now time for Northern Ireland to rise up and make it clear that it will not be treated by the rest of the United Kingdom in this shameful manner.”