We should not allow euphemistic language disguise the horror of ultra liberal abortion laws

News Letter editorial of Thursday December 16 2021:
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

Some years ago, a number of politicians in Northern Ireland pushed for the abortions to be allowed in so-called cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

Here is a question to ponder.

Is there a Stormont MLA who supported such a reform and then stopped there? Who, having seen terminations legalised in such scenarios, then said that no other abortions should be allowed. Perhaps there is. But if not then did they always support abortion on demand? And if so, why did they not admit that back then?

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The question is important because it might establish how we have gone from an assembly that opposed even such limited reform to one that backs extreme abortion scenarios.

The new Northern Ireland laws are more liberal even than in Great Britain, where abortion practices are horribly slack. In England and Wales, terminations are technically only permitted in constrained conditions where continuance of pregnancy involves a risk to the mother. In reality, the risk is not assessed and there is abortion on demand as late as 24 weeks, a procedure so revolting that very few doctors will perform terminations after 15 or 16 weeks.

At least Northern Ireland’s new laws are more honest, in that there is no pretence at a restriction prior to 12 weeks.

Yet NI also allows abortion until birth when “if the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or mental impairment as to be seriously disabled”.

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How is that activists who project themselves as progressive endorse a policy so ruthless towards society’s most vulnerable people? Aborting a fully formed baby, on the verge of emerging into the world, because it is disabled is saying it is legitimate for a prospective parent to conclude that such a child will have so little value it would be better not to be born.

The prospect of such abortions is so upsetting it is easier to banish them from our thoughts. But we should not let euphemistic language such as “reproduction rights” disguise the horrors that emerge from ultra liberal abortion laws.

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