We need DUP to be our voice: lives of unborn children are at stake

SPUC is grateful for the DUP’s principled pro-life stand, which Arlene Foster reaffirmed in her News Letter article on September 21, and which has saved countless lives. As the largest pro-life party, and the largest party full-stop, it’s vital the DUP acts in line with its stated policy, and in a way that is commensurate with its power, influence and mandate.

On July 24 the Northern Ireland Executive Formation Act 2019 received Royal assent and passed into British law. Originally intended to support the talks process at Stormont by postponing the date of a Northern Ireland election, successive amendments brought by Labour backbenchers, with the complicity of Theresa May’s government, has extended the Act’s remit to impose both same-sex marriage and a radical abortion regime on our Province.

The Act does two things that pro-life people need be concerned about: first, it repeals sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which effectively enables abortion for any reason up to 28 weeks gestation.

Secondly, the legislation instructs the secretary of state to make abortion regulations in line with the United Nations’ ‘CEDAW report’. At this stage it is not clear what these regulations will contain, although some form of public consultation is likely to occur in the near future.

Under section 13(4) of the Act these measures come into effect on October 22 unless a Stormont Executive is formed on, or by, October 21. Ensuring the return of Stormont represents the only remaining prospect of saving the lives of countless unborn children in Northern Ireland.

We ask that the DUP urge the secretary of state to set a date for the return of Stormont, before the 22nd, and invite the local parties to form an Executive. DUP MLAs should take their seats, and demand the cooperation of the other parties in restoring local government.

Failure to restore devolution under such conditions would fatally undermine the Belfast Agreement. If devolution is only allowed to work when it suits the narrow ideological interests of a single party it isn’t, in fact, working at all: if Sinn Fein cannot agree to form an Executive before the 22nd, they simply cannot agree.

We ask the leadership of the DUP to remember their thousands of pro-life constituents, from all faiths and none, who are relying on them to be their voice in this difficult time when the lives of untold thousands of unborn children are at stake. Our politicians may soon be knocking our doors asking for our support: we are asking for theirs now.

Philip Lynn, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) NI, Belfast, BT1