Northern Ireland abortion: Pro-Life campaigners to arrange baby shoes outside City Hall in number 4,136 - 'number of abortions since decriminaliation'

MPs decriminalised abortion here while the Assembly was suspended in October 2019, in the wake of Martin McGuinness' resignation as Deputy First Minister.

In 2020 the assembly passed a motion rejecting the new Westminster legislation, however it was non-binding and all criminal offences relating to abortion in NI therefore ended.

Director of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth said, “To mark this anniversary, Precious Life has organised a Life Chain event in Belfast. Pro-life people from across Northern Ireland will line the pavement outside City Hall in remembrance of all those innocent babies who have lost their lives to Westminster’s unjust and barbaric legislation. 4136 babies killed by abortion is the most recent official figure from last November, so I dread to think of what the true death toll is now.”

“At the gates of the City Hall, a poignant display of baby shoes will be laid out to form the number 4 1 3 6 - each with a boy or girl's name attached.

"It is understood the costs of abortion could be £5million for Northern Ireland. Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris said providing abortions is the only part of Northern Ireland public spending in 2023 that is 'ringfenced'. So, while the Health Service in

Northern Ireland is in crisis due to lack of funds, killing babies in the womb is prioritised over everything else.”

Meanwhile in England, Christian campaigners in England who have staged High Court challenges against a 'protest buffer zone' around a clinic which provides abortions.

Two judges considered challenges to the order, made by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, at a High Court hearing in London.

Lord Justice Warby and Mrs Justice Thornton heard that the Public Spaces Protection Order was made a year ago and “restricts activities” around the Robert Clinic, in Bournemouth, Dorset, which is run by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

They are expected to deliver a ruling in the near future.

Lawyers representing the council told judges that the order placed restrictions on the “activities of various groups and individuals present outside” the clinic.

The campaign organisation Christian Concern and Livia Tossici-Bolt, who leads an anti-abortion group called 40 Days for Life Bournemouth, have questioned the validity of the order.

A Christian Concern spokesman said outside court that campaigners were arguing that the “buffer zone” around the clinic “criminalises prayer and reading from the Bible”.

But barrister Kuljit Bhogal KC, who led the council’s legal team, told judges that the order protected “service users and clinic staff” from “activities” which were “evidenced to have had a detrimental effect on the quality of their life”.

The start of this month saw the first person in Northern Ireland to be arrested in relation to new abortion clinic buffer zones, which took effect here on 29 September.

The devout Catholic woman was on her knees praying with her rosary when arrested by PSNI outside the Causeway Coast Hospital.