Pro-Lifers Fight against Expansion of Abortion in Northern Ireland
Part Three of Three

By Liz Townsend

Pro-lifers are waging a court battle against guidelines that would endanger the lives of unborn children in Northern Ireland. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) will argue in a hearing October 27–28 that the Northern Ireland health department’s March guidelines circumvent the law and redefine abortion as a medical “service” rather than a criminal offense.

“Health department guidance is very important since it is the basis on which clinical decisions are made,” SPUC director John Smeaton wrote in his blog. “SPUC believes the current guidance undermines the law, creates a serious threat to unborn children, to the safety of women and to the rights of medical professionals.”

Although part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is not subject to the 1967 Abortion Act that legalized abortion in the UK. Abortion is illegal, although court decisions have allowed for some exceptions. In 2004, responding to a pro-abortion group’s lawsuit, an appeals court ordered the Department of Health, Social Services, and Public Safety to issue official guidelines about abortion, according to the Irish Times.

The health department released its report in March, declaring that “a termination will therefore be lawful where the continuance of the pregnancy threatens the life of the woman, or would adversely affect her physical or mental health. The adverse effect on her physical or mental health must be a ‘real and serious’ one, and must also be ‘permanent or long term.’”

In addition, the health department stated that while “there is no legal right to refuse to take part in the termination of pregnancy ... [n]o-one should compel staff to actively participate in the assessment or in performing a termination or handling of fetal remains.” However, these conscientious objectors must refer the woman to another practitioner so she can have the abortion.

Pro-lifers in Northern Ireland immediately called for the guidelines to be withdrawn. To insure this, SPUC filed a request for judicial review, which was granted in June. The October hearing will be held at the High Court in Belfast, according to Smeaton’s blog.

SPUC claims that the guidelines misinterpret abortion law in Northern Ireland by failing to “acknowledge properly the presumptive illegality of abortion”; “recognise properly the rights of the unborn child”; and “provide guidance on, or require investigation into, whether a child which may be aborted is capable of being born alive.” SPUC’s challenge also faults the health department for “providing for ‘non-directive’ counselling which is incompatible with the presumptively criminal nature of abortion in Northern Ireland.”

The pro-life group also warns that allowing abortions for “health” reasons will increase the number of abortions, since experience in other countries has shown that the definition of what constitutes a threat to health is always expanded by the courts. “[O]ver 98 percent of induced abortions in Britain are undertaken supposedly because of a risk to the mental or physical health of women,” Smeaton wrote. “The guidance presents abortion as a legitimate treatment for protecting mental health ... ignoring a mountain of evidence that abortion is a cause of mental ill-health.”

SPUC is raising funds to continue the legal fight. “The law in Northern Ireland not only safeguards the lives of unborn children but also protects women from the terrible damage which abortion can cause,” Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland said in a press release. “We hope that the department will now be reasonable and redraft the guidance which were fundamentally flawed and need radical revision.”

Part One
Part Two