Government should not further undermine devolution with ill-conceived proposals in abortion consultation

NORTHERN Ireland was treated with contempt by the Westminster Parliament in July and is now in danger of being treated with even greater contempt by the British Government.

In July, despite the fact that abortion is a devolved matter and that the Westminster Parliament knew that the democratically elected Northern Ireland Assembly had voted as recently as 2016 by a simple cross-community majority not to change its abortion law in any way, a coalition of English, Welsh and Scottish MPs saw fit to impose abortion law change on us, against the expressed vote of every single Member of Parliament from Northern Ireland who takes their seat in Westminster voting against.

No part of these islands has ever been treated as Northern Ireland has been treated by those English, Welsh and

Scottish MPs, on a life-and-death issue where it is clear that the distinctive approach of Northern Ireland means that 100,000 people are alive today who would not be had this region followed the others.

In the context of the huge sensitivity surrounding this issue and the fact that the alleged human rights justifications put forward to demand the change have been shown by Professor Mark Hill QC not to be requirements of human rights law, it is incomprehensible that the Government — knowing that abortion is still a devolved matter — has published consultation proposals to introduce changes which go far beyond what has actually been required by Parliament.

If the Government wants to maintain any commitment to devolution — something it declared repeatedly prior to the vote in July — it should not further undermine devolution.

Going forward, the Government must, as guarantor of devolution, constrain itself to what the law actually requires.

In this context, we urgently call on the Government to step back from the ill-conceived proposals in its abortion consultation.

ROBBIE BUTLER MLA SIR JEFFREY DONALDSON TOM ELLIOTT

PAUL GIVAN

CARLA LOCKHART MLA CLLR ROISIN LYNCH BARONESS NUALA O’LOAN CLLR ANNE McCLOSKEY CLLR MICHAEL SAVAGE ROBIN SWANN MLA PATSY McGLONE MLA