Why all MPS should vote against NI’S new abortion regulations this week
The legislation imposed from Westminster is the most permissive law in Europe and runs contrary to the UK’S obligations to disabled people, argues Alban Maginness
Heidi Crowter is a truly remarkable activist for disability rights. A 24-year-old woman with Down’s syndrome, she has initiated a campaign to defend the human rights of other disabled people and in particular the right of Down’s babies to be born alive, and not routinely aborted, as is the current practice in Britain.
Her phenomenal campaign in Britain, has acted as an anchor for a DUP motion in the Assembly, which opposed abortion on the grounds of serious disability, such as Down’s syndrome.
Her campaign has suddenly awakened a national debate about disability and abortion, that has been ignored for too long.
Public opinion in Britain is now having to come to terms with the hitherto unmentionable elimination of Down’s babies before birth.
The debate on this motion in the Assembly was its finest since restoration. There were outstanding contributions from the DUP’S Joanne Bunting and Paul Given, SDLP’S Dolores Kelly and UUP’S Rosemary Barton.
All presented their views with dignity, compassion and intelligence. Oddly, the debate received sparse coverage on the BBC.
Now the British government must seriously heed this significant cross-party vote and withdraw (at least temporarily) its abortion regulations, that are out of keeping with the majority view of the Assembly.
The British government has unintentionally united the Assembly in opposition to its abortion regulations, that it undemocratically imposed upon us last year.
Ironically, the opposition to this imposition by the British government has been lead by the DUP. Paradoxically Sinn Fein have supported this legislative imposition by the imperial parliament at Westminster.
However the DUP with the support of most of the Ulster Unionists and most of the SDLP, successfully passed their motion demonstrating the opposition of the majority of the Assembly against abortion on the grounds of non-fatal serious disability.
It was a very important rejection by our Assembly of the most egregious aspect of the abortion regulations, that the Westminster parliament has foisted upon us.
Despite the fact that abortion is a devolved matter for the Assembly to deal with, abortion legislation was passed at Westminster last year in the final months of that parliament.
The abortion law was passed contrary to the devolution settlement that underpins the Good Friday Agreement.
This sensitive area of public policy was and remains, a matter exclusively for the local legislature, as determined by the European Court of Human Rights.
The draft abortion regulations are of an extreme kind and will permit abortion up to birth on the basis of serious foetal disability, as no gestational time limits are referenced in the legislation.
This is unparalleled in Europe and makes us the recipient of the most permissive abortion law in Europe by courtesy of the British parliament. Even if one supports the introduction of abortion here, you would find this aspect of the regulations to be repugnant.
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis wrongly claims that the regulations are human rights compatible. He also in a cavalier manner has dismissed the Assembly vote.
But these regulations are not compatible with the obligations that the UK has signed up to under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Under that convention signed up to in 2009, the UK has pledged to protect the rights of disabled people. To discriminate between able bodied and seriously disabled babies regarding abortion, is therefore incompatible with the convention.
The UN Committee, that monitors the convention’s compliance in the UK, has recommended that the UK’S abortion law be amended : “...without legalising selective abortion on the ground of foetal deficiency.”
Under the 1967 Act (as amended in 1990 ), the law permits the abortion of babies beyond 24 weeks, if there is a serious foetal disability. But draft Regulations 7 and 13 reflect that same deficiency and yet the Government has persisted in imposing that provision here.
As Joanne Bunting highlighted in her forensically brilliant proposal speech in the Assembly debate, former Lord Chief Justice Lord Kerr has indicated in a non-binding Supreme Court judgment, his judicial concern about the compatibility of this disability provision with the UN Convention on Disability.
So not only have Westminster unconstitutionally and undemocratically imposed their abortion regulations, but they have imposed regulations, that are potentially, incompatible with the UK’S Human Rights obligations under the UN Convention.
These abortion regulations will be voted as a whole in Parliament this week.
There will be no chance to amend them and there is no method of selectively opposing them. Therefore there is a heavy onus on all MPS (even those who support abortion in principle) to vote against them.
Heidi Crowter has implored the Government: “...not to ask MPS to vote for regulations that contain discriminatory provisions that tell people like me that we should not exist.”