JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Proposed abortion changes not wanted in Northern Ireland, says SPUC

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Proposed abortion changes not wanted in Northern Ireland, says SPUC

David Ford, NI justice minister

Proposed changes to abortion law are not wanted by the people of Northern Ireland nor by their elected representatives, said SPUC Northern Ireland.

SPUC Northern Ireland was responding to reports today that David Ford, Northern Ireland's justice minister, is to launch a consultation on whether Northern Ireland's abortion law should be changed to allow abortion where the unborn child is terminally-ill or has been conceived in rape or incest.

Abortion is presumptively illegal in Northern Ireland and remains a criminal offence.

Liam Gibson, SPUC Northern Ireland's development officer, told the media earlier today:

"The people and politicians of Northern Ireland have shown, time and time again, that they reject pro-abortion attempts to change Northern Ireland's abortion law. I am confident that they will do so again. This consultation is not the result of public opinion but the result of a propaganda campaign orchestrated by the pro-abortion lobby and its willing accomplices in the media, most notably Stephen Nolan."

Abortion is not a compassionate response to the diagnosis of fatal disability. Babies with fatal disabilities are no less human than other children and share the same right to life as all other human beings. The law in Northern Ireland respects that right, while the British Abortion Act has led to the situation where it is lawful to kill a disabled child up to birth.

Abortion in cases of rape or incest is also not a compassionate response for the mother. Abortion simply adds a second tragic and traumatic experience onto the first. Unborn children conceived in rape or incest should not be punished by being killed by abortion. It is a basic principle of natural justice that the innocent should not be punished along with the guilty."

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.