There has been some publicity recently for a letter organised by Labour MP Stella Creasy and signed by British and Irish parliamentarians. The letter calls for the issue of abortion in Northern Ireland to be discussed at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC), taking place today (Wednesday, July 25).
In fact, the letter takes an extreme position when it comes to abortion. It argues for the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861. This is a truly extraordinary proposal. It would mean abortion on demand anywhere, at any time effectively right up until birth. It would leave Northern Ireland with a more permissive legal framework on abortion than Great Britain has under the '67 Act.
Put simply, in my view the letter is deeply flawed, misguided and constitutionally inappropriate.
Quite apart from the harm that would result from the decriminalisation of abortion, it is surely fundamentally wrong for politicians who do not even represent Northern Ireland to be seeking to impose their own views on its people. It is striking that only a handful of Northern Irish Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) signed Ms Creasy's letter. The clear majority of those who signed do not even represent the people of Northern Ireland.
The letter also demonstrates a failure to properly understand the real purpose of the BIIGC. The conference was never intended to function as a space for discussing devolved responsibilities. It was set up to discuss non-devolved issues related to Northern Ireland as well as wider areas of mutual concern between the British and Irish governments. Since 2009, abortion has come under the remit of the Assembly in NI. Therefore it is quite clear the BIIGC has no mandate whatsoever for discussing Northern Ireland abortion law.
Arguments in the letter that the recent Supreme Court judgment on abortion in Northern Ireland requires action to be taken are also seriously misguided. There's been a lot of entirely false spin about this. I was actually in the Supreme Court for the judgment. So, let me set the record straight.
First, the case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was dismissed because the body had no standing to challenge Northern Ireland's abortion law. Second, the judgment also made it clear that there is no human right to abortion. Even if you leave this aside, the additional comments on NI's current law in respect to fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime were non-binding comments. This means that they place absolutely no obligation to alter the current abortion law.
Even more staggering is the way the letter attempts to hijack the spirit of the Belfast Agreement as justification for its extreme calls. The Belfast Agreement created a power-sharing arrangement and ushered in a new era in the governance of Northern Ireland. It was designed to bring an end to direct rule from Westminster. To cite the Belfast Agreement as part of an argument that involves calling for MPs at Westminster to try and remove Sections 58 and 59 is simply astonishing and far from evidencing the spirit of the Belfast Agreement, completely contradicts it.
The bottom line is this: democracy and devolution must be respected. The proper place, indeed the only place for a debate on abortion law in NI is the Northern Ireland Assembly. If Westminster MPs try and impose change, the consequences for devolution would be felt across the whole of the UK. Of course, I recognise that the Assembly is not sitting now. But that does not excuse taking advantage of the political complexities in Northern Ireland to try and impose abortion law change on the people of NI.
I wonder how many of the signatories have considered that out of all the parliaments and assemblies of the UK, the one where abortion law was most recently debated was the Northern Ireland Assembly back in 2016? So, the current NI abortion law has the most recent democratic mandate out of any part of the UK.
Finally, we should consider the fact that the current law on abortion in Northern Ireland saves lives. Research from Both Lives Matter has shown that there are 100,000 people across the province alive today because it never adopted the 1967 Abortion Act. By contrast, across the rest of the UK, since 1967 there have been 9 million abortions. So, who should be learning from whom?
Parliamentarians at Westminster would do well to consider the message from seven incredible women from Northern Ireland who came to Westminster last week, each from a different background and together representing all parts of society. Each spoke clearly about why all these calls for Westminster to force abortion law change on Northern Ireland are so wrong and misplaced. Their message was simple but clear: respect the people, respect devolution and respect the rights of both the mother and the unborn baby.
If only more parliamentarians were willing to listen.
Nola Leach is the chief executive of Christian Action Research and Education (CARE)
