Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) rejected attempts to expand access to abortion, bucking outside pressure to change its sovereign law which allows abortion only for risk to the mother’s life. Two amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill were brought up in the Assembly. One would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest and the other when an unborn child is diagnosed with a so-called “life-limiting disability”.

Northern Ireland’s law is in contrast to the 1967 Abortion Act which legalized abortion in other parts of the UK. The votes follow a recent High Court ruling claiming the country’s pro-life laws were “incompatible” with the EU’s Convention on Human Rights and directing the Assembly to legislate on the legality of abortion.

The legislature responded with resounding support to continue protecting unborn children, without exception. The amendment to legalize abortion for children “with life-limiting conditions” up to birth, sponsored by Alliance MLAs Trevor Lunn and Stewart Dickson, failed to pass the Assembly by a vote of 59-40.  Similarly, the amendment from Alliance MLA Anna Lo to legalize abortion for rape and incest was rejected by a vote a 64-30.

The Democratic Unionist Party and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party opposed the amendments and urged the creation of a working group on fetal abnormalities “to make recommendations as to how the issue can be addressed, including, if necessary, draft legislation.”

DUP MLA Emma Pengelly said medics had advised that there is no such term as “fatal foetal abnormality”, a point also voiced by SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly.

Precious Life in Northern Ireland had declared that the amendment on “fatal fetal abnormalies” was “riddled with terminology that incited fear, despair, and, ultimately, death. ‘Fatal’ is not a medical diagnosis and cannot be defined. No healthcare professional can determine that an unborn child will certainly die before, during, or immediately after birth. To claim that an unborn baby with anencephaly is ‘brain dead’, ‘has no brain’, or is ‘just a dead body’ or has the potential to ‘poison’ his or her mother, is horrifyingly misleading and inexcusable. It is simply not true.”

The Assembly’s overwhelming rejection of abortion sends a clear pro-life response to the recent High Court ruling and to those pushing for abortion on demand. Pro-life groups rallied citizens to lobby their MLAs and urge them to protect the right to life. Precious Life vowed to hold MLAs who voted for the pro-abortion amendments accountable in the upcoming election in May. 

Callum Webster from the Christian Institute’s stated, “It is heartening that the majority of MLAs have voted to uphold the sanctity of life today at Stormont. There has been a media campaign to undermine the legal protections afforded to our unborn children, but thankfully politicians have resisted that co-ordinated pressure.”

The pro-abortion campaign included the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the British Pregnancy Service and Amnesty International, with the latter telling MLAs that not changing the law would be a "betrayal of women".

Webster concluded, “The Assembly has stood up for the people of the Province and against those who wish to sell abortion as a positive choice whilst devaluing the lives of the most vulnerable in our society.”