MLAs back move to stop abortions for non-fatal disabilities

MLAs have backed a motion on abortion legislation which aims to outlaw terminations in cases of non-fatal disabilities, which were recently liberalised by Westminster.

48 MLAs voted in favour of the Paul Givan's Private Members Bill with 12 MLAs voting against it. 27 MLAs abstained in the vote.

The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill will now go to the committee stage where it will be scrutinised by MLAs at the Health Committee.

The debate was heated at times with the DUP leader Arlene Foster accusing those advocates of aborting babies with Down's syndrome as entering the realm of eugenics.

Mrs Foster told the Stormont Assembly: "No one's life is less valuable and this standard should apply to lives inside and outside the womb.

Arlene Foster warned that we are on a "very slippery slope."

"Everyone should be very careful about that, because it is Down's syndrome and non-fatal disability today - what is it in 10 years' time that we are deciding is appropriate for abortion."

However, Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said the DUP is instead attempting to roll back legislation liberalising the country's abortion laws.

In the debate, Michelle O'Neill said her party would be abstaining from the vote.

This week, Sinn Fein is to ask Stormont ministers to commission abortion services two years after legislation enabling the procedure was passed at Westminster while devolution was suspended.

"I am here to give a voice to those women who find themselves in incredibly difficult and very vulnerable circumstances," Ms O'Neill told the Stormont Assembly.

Michelle O'Neill contributed to the debate in her role as a senior politician within Sinn Fein rather than Deputy First Minister

She said the DUP and Ulster Unionist Health Minister Robin Swann were "failing" women by refusing to commission services legislated for long ago.

Ms O'Neill added: "Women are entitled to have compassionate healthcare.

"It is a human right to have compassionate healthcare and should be the focus of what this assembly is concerned about."

  • Background to abortion legislation in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's previously restrictive laws were changed by MPs at Westminster in 2019 at a time when the Stormont administration was collapsed.

The laws allow abortion in all circumstances up to 12 weeks.

Terminations are permitted up to 24 weeks when there is a risk to the woman's physical or mental health.

There is no time limit in cases of fatal foetal abnormality or when there has been a diagnosis of a serious physical or mental impairment that would cause a serious disability.

Abortions after 24 weeks in those circumstances are extremely rare.

Individual health trusts have set up temporary early medical abortion pathways but Northern Ireland-wide services have not yet been commissioned by the Department of Health.

Mr Swann has argued that, as a controversial issue, it is for the Executive to agree to set up the services.

The bill being debated by MLAs was proposed by the senior DUP member Paul Givan.

Speaking at the debate, Mr Givan said: "This Bill is about tackling the attitudes and myths that lead to failures to provide high-quality support and care."

He said discriminatory attitudes were still present, adding: "This is not something that our assembly should tolerate."

Paul Givan said Down's syndrome life expectancy had increased to 50 or 60 years.

He lambasted the 2019 legislation, saying: "This sends out the message loud and clear that the lives of people with disabilities are less valuable and worthy of protection than the lives of people without disabilities. A law which fosters this thinking in 2021 is completely unacceptable."

However, SDLP Stormont Assembly member Sinead McLaughlin said it was the feelings of the women affected by abortion which mattered.

She added: "It is the emotions of women who have to make an extremely difficult decision about whether she can progress with a pregnancy having been given a distressing medical diagnosis.

"This Bill is an overreaction to an extremely small number of abortions, which politicises the choices women are forced to make in extremely difficult circumstances."

Meanwhile, The Alliance Party's Paula Bradshaw said the DUP's measure could see more women travelling for healthcare.

She said: "The whole premise of the Bill rests on a misinterpretation.

"It is legislation that will be overturned because it is based on a false premise."

She added: "It takes people on an emotional journey then fails to deliver on the premise because it will be overturned and no difference will be made."

She said the Bill did nothing to change public attitudes to those with Down's Syndrome.

However, the UUP's Rosemary Barton's disagreed with Ms Bradshaw's opinion:

"The amendment proposed today sends a very clear message that people with Down's Syndrome and any other disability are equal members of our society," she said.