Bid to change law will undermine devolution

ON October 23, a group of English MPs, led by Labour Party MP Diana Johnston, will introduce a Bill calling for full decriminalisation of the Northern Ireland abortion laws.

This is an attack on our right, as Northern Ireland people, to decide whether we uphold, change or reject such legislation.

It is a blatant attempt to undermine the democratic rights of the people of Northern Ireland to decide their own laws, as enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.

The pro-choice lobby of Amnesty International and Sinn Fein are aligning themselves with these MPs from Westminster in order to rush through changes to the current abortion laws, by taking advantage of the fact that the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently not sitting.

These are, indeed, strange bedfellows that are working against the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland by undermining our democracy and attempting to impose their particular view on the electorate.

Lord Alton, the English peer, has already condemned such meddling by Westminster as tantamount to treating Northern Ireland as if it were a remote and backward region, incapable of framing its own laws and determining its own future.

In 2008, Ian Paisley Snr, Gerry Adams, Sir Reg Empey and Mark Durkan signed a letter sent to all MPs from England, Scotland and Wales, stating that “the imposition of legislation on abortion that excluded the Assembly from having a say would undoubtedly undermine the integrity of the devolution process and, significantly, would reduce public confidence in the political progress we’ve made”.

The present-day leaders of the main political parties in Northern Ireland must be held accountable for the above statements made by their predecessors and told, in clear terms, that nothing has changed.

No Westminster interference must be allowed to undermine our cherished democracy.

PETER J McCAFFERTY By email