THE REAL BARBARIANS OF ABORTION
NOW the people of the Irish republic have voted to legalise abortion, a group of Conservative MPs led by the Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt, is calling for the House of Commons to vote to do the same for Northern Ireland: termination, except in exceptional cases, remains illegal there.
It has for more than half a century been accepted that Northern Ireland was exempt from Westminster law on this matter (the 1967 Abortion Act was never extended to the province). I suppose that Ms Mordaunt regards the people there as religious primitives who need enlightenment imposed on them by the civilised British mainland.
But are we so civilised on this side of Irish Sea?
While abortion is legal in Britain only up until the 24th week of pregnancy, the law allows the termination of the unborn child right up until the full term of 40 weeks ‘if there is a substantial risk of a serious handicap’.
In other words, what would be considered illegal infanticide in the case of ‘normal’ babies suddenly becomes legal if they don’t meet certain standards.
Most frequently, this applies to Down’s syndrome. Lisa Green was 35 weeks pregnant when in 2006 she was told her unborn child had Down’s. Her obstetrician recommended that she abort this completely viable child. Her refusal to accept this advice apparently startled him.
As the parent of a wonderful young woman with Down’s syndrome (she turns 23 this week), I remain amazed the law continues to regard such people as fit to be destroyed in the womb up to the moment of birth at full term.
Last year, a congenitally disabled Tory peer, Lord Shinkwin, proposed a Bill which would have equalised the abortion limit at 24 weeks for all pregnancies.
He told his fellow peers: ‘There’s something deeply disturbing about non-disabled politicians spouting equality and in the same breath defending a law which is being used as a licence to kill for the crime of being disabled.’
His plea was ignored. I wonder if it is not Belfast which is barbaric, but Westminster.