Recall of Stormont over abortion in October now looks like it was a charade, because the DUP seems willing to collude in liberalising termination laws

I read in Saturday’s News Letter that Arlene Foster has written to the secretary of state calling for decisions on abortion to be made in Northern Ireland.
By The Newsroom
Published 10th Mar 2020, 13:15 BST
Updated 10th Mar 2020, 15:56 BST
The October abortion recall with DUP MLAs right, and nationalist MLAs boycotting their usual benches on the leftThe October abortion recall with DUP MLAs right, and nationalist MLAs boycotting their usual benches on the left
The October abortion recall with DUP MLAs right, and nationalist MLAs boycotting their usual benches on the left

(The article can be read here: ‘Arlene Foster says government should scrap liberalised abortion regime plan for NI — saying it is for MLAs to decide,’ March 7)

I am unclear as to whether this intervention is wilfully ignorant of the present legal position or is an attempt to divert attention from the DUP’s failure to have this issue addressed as a part of the ‘New Decade, New Aproach’ agreement.

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It makes the charade of recalling the assembly last October to address this issue look like little more than a circus designed to achieve nothing other than to grab the headlines.

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

Mrs Foster’s full letter properly concedes the fact that the secretary of state is under a legal duty to take certain actions pursuant to Section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019.

The secretary of state cannot simply ignore the law and leave the matter to the Northern Ireland Executive.

On the other hand, what Mrs Foster can do is to bring forward legislation in the area of abortion to the Northern Ireland Assembly which supersedes any measures that the secretary of state may put in place.

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Of course, any legislation which would now pass the assembly will be subject to an effective Sinn Fein veto and will represent no more protection to the unborn than this pro-choice party is prepared to afford. A fact of which Mrs Foster must inevitably be aware.

No doubt there are some who would seek to exploit for political purposes Mrs Foster’s continued inattention to legal detail.

The more cynical observer will conclude that the DUP have been all too willing to collude in the liberalisation of abortion law in Northern Ireland.

Either way writing to a secretary of state who is obliged to implement the law when you have been unprepared to take action in the assembly suggests a contempt for the sophistication of pro-life voters which have hitherto been taken for granted.

Gary Hutton, Larne

Related topics:Arlene FosterDUPNorthern IrelandMLAsNorthern Ireland Executive