Baroness Paisley: Someone needs to break cover and save day over abortion

This letter from Baroness Paisley first appeared in the October 10 print edition of the newspaper:
By Baroness Paisley
Published 15th Oct 2019, 12:34 BST
Baroness Paisley's appeal comes less than two weeks before Westminster legislation will change Northern Ireland's abortion lawsBaroness Paisley's appeal comes less than two weeks before Westminster legislation will change Northern Ireland's abortion laws
Baroness Paisley's appeal comes less than two weeks before Westminster legislation will change Northern Ireland's abortion laws

As I write we are only two short weeks away from a dramatic change in our law.

Until now, like many thousands in our Province, I have hoped and prayed that the greater good might prevail and that our elected representatives might lay down their differences, take up their mandate and return to work with the not inconsiderable aim of preventing such a wholesale turn about in the law regarding abortion.

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The various arguments as to why they are choosing not to do so need no repetition by me. We are wearied by their scrambling to claim the higher ground.

But right now the hard-won devolution powers which have the potential to reap a fine harvest for us, are being left to perish in the field.

This issue, above all others, will set the trajectory of our future.

By it we will become a Province known for choosing to preserve the sanctity of life — no matter the trends and preferences elsewhere — or we will be numbered with everywhere else and welcomed as having at last joined the ranks of the “advanced world”.

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The abortion issue has many nuances. It is not simple. There are huge aspects which always will cause deep heart-searching and difficult decisions when it comes to the unborn child and the life of the mother. There are medical conditions which may require intervention and this issue presents challenges like few others to our medical practitioners.

As a mother of five children, as a grandmother and as a great-grandmother, life has taught me that its preciousness is more than the law, it also is about the spirit of the law.

And so, as the greatest test of our political leadership fast approaches, along with the thousands of God-fearing people who recently publicly declared their deepest concern, I say to our elected representatives, “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

May there be but one man or woman who will break party political cover and save the day.

Baroness Paisley, Belfast

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