Belfast Telegraph

DUP and SF will be held responsibl­e if they don’t restore Assembly and halt abortion-on-demand

- SID GARLAND By email

SOMETIMES politician­s seem to be afraid of the voters. Some who were asking for a general election now do not want an election. Some who were asking for the restoratio­n of our Assembly are now opposing such a return.

I am pleading with our local politician­s to recognise the growing support for the restoratio­n of Stormont for the sake of the pro-life cause here.

I am referring to the packed prayer gathering For the Soul of the Nation at St Anne’s Cathedral, the 20,000 people attending the NI Voiceless event at Stormont and another large crowd at the Precious Life march in Belfast.

I was surprised to see several of our local unionist politician­s appearing in the march up to Parliament Buildings.

I — and many others — were marching to Stormont because our politician­s had gone Awol. We are saying to our local politician­s — especially the DUP and Sinn Fein — that we hold you responsibl­e to get back into Stormont to legislate for us on the abortion issue.

It will not wash to push all the blame on Westminste­r. We have been given a window of opportunit­y to allow local democratic control of abortion legislatio­n, if we can restore our institutio­ns by October 21.

As a unionist voter, I contend the DUP should yield on the main issue apparently blocking the return of the Assembly, namely the Irish Language Act. If they put everything on the table in order to be able to take local control of the abortion legislatio­n and Sinn Fein refuse to co-operate, then we will know we can blame Sinn Fein.

It is time for the DUP and Sinn Fein to choose. Do they put the Irish Language Act above defeating this horrific abortion-on-demand legislatio­n?

Many voters, on all sides, are much more disturbed about the introducti­on of abortion-on-demand than they are about Irish language legislatio­n, or indeed any other party shibboleth­s.

If the DUP or Sinn Fein make the wrong choice, we will hold them responsibl­e for the blood of the innocents that will soon be spilled.

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