The NHS cannot afford the messy range of side effects and time that abortion introduction demands

Chief executive Gill Walton apparently said: “Healthcare workers are taking a higher risk than the rest of the population to care for the rest of us.

“To mitigate that risk as much as possible, it is vital that we provide them with the right level of protective equipment.

“What we are hearing from our members up and down the country is that this simply isn’t happening.”

Do the Amnesty International Northern Ireland team deserve public contempt for pressing for the introduction of abortion in Northern Ireland at this time?

NHS, ICU and theatre nurses, and their medical colleagues, do not need abortion to be introduced.

Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill should table an assembly motion taking local charge of our abortion law without delay. Should NHS workers and pharmacy staff refuse to have anything to do with abortion drugs and surgical abortions?

The NHS website lists abortion complications:

• 1. infection of the womb – occurs in up to 1 in every 10 abortions; it can usually be treated with antibiotics

• 2. some of the pregnancy remaining in the womb – occurs in up to 1 in every 20 abortions; further treatment may be required if this happens

• 3. continuation of the pregnancy – occurs in less than 1 in every 100 abortions; further treatment will be needed if this happens

• 4. excessive bleeding – occurs in about 1 in every 1,000 abortions; severe cases may require a blood transfusion

• 5. damage of the entrance to the womb (cervix) – occurs in up to 1 in every 100 surgical abortions

• 6. damage to the womb – occurs in 1 in every 250 to 1,000 surgical abortions and less than 1 in 1,000 medical abortions carried out at 12 to 24 weeks.

Did the Director of the Royal College of Midwives in Northern Ireland Karen Murray really say the following words? “We now have the regulations under which women and girls living in Northern Ireland will be able to access safe, compassionate abortion services. This is truly a milestone”.

Milestones and tombstones can look similar from the distance, but as we draw close to them their differences become apparent.

The Ten Commandments on tablets of stone (‘You shall not kill’), are very different from any milestone or tombstone.

People have tried to bury both God and God’s morality in the past. But we live in moral universe, exercise freewill, and are responsible for our choices. God cannot be buried, and neither can morality.

We need every ICU and anaesthetic practitioner available to save life, not terminate it.

The NHS cannot afford the messy range of side effects and time that abortion introduction demands.

Please ask you MP/MLA by phone-email-letter to resist the lunacy of introducing abortion when our local NHS is overwhelmed.

Catherine Ní Bhaoill, Belfast BT9