Abortion Services Commissioning: Northern Ireland

Carla Lockhart Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Westminster Hall

[Ian Paisley]

That was a telling point and absolutely right and proper. Yes, this does dishonour and betray the devolution settlement. There are no two ways about; that is the only want it cuts. When powers are devolved to one region and then it is decided that it is not doing things the way we like, so the powers should be taken back, that is not lost on anyone.

We are not allowed to make up facts in this debate. The myth has been projected today that the majority of people in Northern Ireland agree to and with the most liberal abortion laws in any other part of the United Kingdom. Given that that has never been tested, that statement is erroneous and not factual. Any time the Assembly has voted on such matters over the years, it has taken the other view. Whenever this House has voted on it, the representatives from Northern Ireland who attend this place were divided, but the majority voted against the new regulations as outlined.

We cannot make up the facts and pretend that, because one or two Members support this, all Northern Ireland supports it. That is a myth and one that has to be challenged. Talk to any section of society in Northern Ireland, in the tribal way that Northern Ireland is often caricatured—talk to members of the Roman Catholic faith, members of the Protestant faith, members of no faith—and one will find that the weight of opinion is solidly for the rights of the unborn child. That is the socially conservative society that Northern Ireland actually is.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point. Some 80% of respondents to the consultation on the imposition of the legislation did not want it imposed on Northern Ireland, which completely dispels the myth that the majority of people in Northern Ireland are pro-abortion. In fact, they are pro-life.

[Ian Paisley]

I do not need to make the point, because my hon. Friend has just made it so exceptionally well.

When the regulations were first set in train in July 2019, it was argued in this Parliament that Parliament was duty-bound to pass the amendment that became section 9 because Northern Ireland, it was stated, was in violation of its international human rights obligations under the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the recommendations of the 2018 CEDAW Committee report on Northern Ireland.

However, when ones drills down into that report, the explanatory memorandum to the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 acknowledges the fact, which the Government now confirm, that paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW Committee report, which the House rested upon when it made its case in 2019, do not constitute legally binding international obligations. Constantly, those arguing for these liberal laws hang their hat on the false premise that it was an international obligation, when it was no such thing. That myth needs to be dispelled. We should not base our laws upon a lie, and that is what has happened. That is why people are so agitated about what the Government did.

The hon. Member for Pontypridd is right: everyone is entitled to their own opinions on these serious, weighty and emotional matters; however, they and the Government are not entitled to make a pretence that the law was an international obligation that had to be followed when it was no such thing. The Government have now changed their former line of reasoning, arguing that it is the 2019 Act rather than the CEDAW recommendations that requires them to force Stormont to implement the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 and the 2021 regulations. If ever something has been made perverse, it is the way in which the law is now being argued for.

It is plainly an untenable situation, where non-binding recommendations have been misrepresented to create a binding Act that removes any obligation to and any protection that the unborn child heretofore had. In doing so, the Government leave Northern Ireland in a straitjacket on one of the most sensitive issues that it could ever consider. The UK Government should not have imposed the same law on Northern Ireland that the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has criticised in respect of the United Kingdom. That committee expressed its concern

“about perceptions in society that stigmatize persons with disabilities…and about the termination of pregnancy at any stage on the basis of fetal impairment.”

By allowing for abortion up to birth—think of it—in cases of non-foetal disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot, the regulations are deeply offensive to the values of Northern Irish people and their politicians.

The House is currently considering a private Member’s Bill that the Government have given fair wind to, introduced by the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), on the rights of children with disabilities. I am honoured to be the secondary sponsor of that Bill. On the one hand, Parliament is trying to introduce laws to protect children with Down’s syndrome, to honour them and to give them their place in society. At the same time, this House says, “Destroy that Down’s syndrome child.” That is what is perverse and wrong, and it is why people are so agitated.

We shall see evidence of that in the latest progress of the Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill, which is being debated as we speak in Stormont. There is a myth that a majority of Northern Ireland politicians are for these liberal laws, when, in fact, the only vote that has taken place in the legislative Assembly since these laws were introduced was on a law to amend them and to remove some of the most horrible liberal policies that affect the unborn. That point, and that sense of irony, is not lost on us.

I welcome the fact of this debate. I also welcome the fact that the Opposition are not here in force today. I think that is surprising, because the Opposition have made a habit of trying to push these matters on to Northern Ireland. I think that, perhaps, under their leader the penny is starting to drop that they cannot keep interfering in the devolution process. They cannot keep saying on the one issue—the Protocol—that they cannot get involved in a debate because they are defending the Belfast agreement, and then the next day come into this place and say, “We want to interfere in the Belfast agreement, set its issues aside, and interfere in a piece of legislation in Northern Ireland.” They cannot have it both ways—that is the message that we send out. This House cannot have it both ways, because that would be obscene and it would be wrong.

Today, I proudly proclaim my defence of, and give my voice to, the unborn. The unborn have a right to life. It is not a health issue to remove the life of an unborn child. It is a moral issue, and this House should have the moral compass to do what is right.

--- Later in debate ---

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

It is a matter of deep regret that this House has sought to impose its will above the devolution settlement. At the heart of devolution must lie respect for the areas of legislation that have been determined to fall within the jurisdiction of devolved authorities. In complex and highly charged matters such as abortion, the benefit of the doubt should always be granted to the devolved authorities that they are capable of managing their own affairs.

Both the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 and the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 were passed despite the overwhelming majority of MPs representing Northern Ireland who take their seats in Westminster voting against the regulations on both occasions, despite the overwhelming majority of respondents to the consultation on the legislation being opposed to its imposition in Northern Ireland and despite the Assembly being back up and running prior to those regulations becoming law. The very premise for the legislation was flawed, with the claim that intervention was required by Westminster because Northern Ireland was in breach of international law. That claim has been demonstrated to be absolutely wrong—even the explanatory notes for the legislation noted that the CEDAW report recommendations

“are not binding and do not constitute international obligations.”

My hon. Friend the Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) eloquently outlined the change that had to be made in the regulations’ explanatory notes to demonstrate that the very foundation on which that law was brought forward was factually incorrect. That is a crazy way to make law—to build it on something that is fundamentally wrong.

The regulations go far beyond what is legally required, as well as beyond the law in England and Wales. They are also discriminatory against those diagnosed with disabilities. A submission to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee stated:

“Abortion is a sensitive matter throughout the United Kingdom, but no more so than in Northern Ireland to which the Abortion Act 1967 has not been extended”.

The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020

“radically alter the framework for abortion services in Northern Ireland”,

and

“its provisions exceed those already available elsewhere in the UK. For example,”

that includes unconditional access to abortion where

“the pregnancy has not exceeded its 12th week”.

We hear about Northern Ireland’s stance on pro-life and about the number of people who have had to make a difficult journey to GB for access, but we do not often hear about the 100,000 lives who are alive today in Northern Ireland because we did not sign up to the 1967 Act. One hundred thousand lives—people working in our hospitals and the NHS, teachers, and those right throughout our society who are alive today and contributing to society because they were not aborted. Our law values life.

Tragically, the radical regulations permit sex-selective abortion, since the sex of a foetus can be determined through non-invasive prenatal testing. Imagine, baby girls—in the main—being aborted just because they are girls. We call ourselves a progressive society; there is nothing progressive about having a law that allows for babies to be aborted because of their sex.

On the subject of disability, Lord Shinkwin noted during the debate in the other place on the latest version of the abortion regulations imposed on Northern Ireland earlier this year:

“The regulations…threaten me because they challenge that right by devaluing my existence. The narrative of the regulations is that I should not really exist. Indeed, I would be better off dead.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 28 April 2021; Vol. 811, c. 2271.]

[Paul Girvan (South Antrim) (DUP)]

On that point, on the importance of the unborn and of protection for the unborn, and on the recognition of that in law, whenever we hear of incidents such as the Omagh bombing, when the unborn were killed, they are included in the numbers of the dead. In the incident at Hillsborough, the unborn were included among the dead. I believe that that is the point: they are a life and they are deemed in law to be a life. The recognition is there, and yet now we believe that we can snuff it out.

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[Carla Lockhart]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes a very valid point. the most basic human right is the right to life and, unfortunately, in our society now the unborn do not have that right. That is not right, and we should not accept it.

As Lord Shinkwin notes, the CEDAW recommendations, one of the great premises on which the law was introduced, expressly prohibit perpetuating stereotypes towards persons with disabilities. The regulations appear to contravene the very recommendations to which they claim to conform. Other Members may be unaware—Members from Northern Ireland have already noted this point in the debate—that proceedings continue in Northern Ireland today, highlighting how unwarranted and extreme these abortion regulations are.

This very afternoon, Members of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland will consider the Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill, a private Member’s Bill brought forward by my good friends and colleagues, MLAs Paul Givan and Christopher Stalford. The Bill seeks to amend the regulations to remove the ground for an abortion in cases of severe foetal impairment.

The Bill passed the second stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly with 48 votes to 12, and was supported by an overwhelming 99.55% of the more than 9,000 submissions to the Northern Ireland Committee for Health consultation. The Bill will now have its consideration stage this afternoon. It goes some way towards meeting the objective of the CEDAW report, on which section 9 of the 2020 regulations is framed—that stereotypes towards persons with disabilities should not be perpetuated. Under the current regulations, babies with entirely non-fatal disabilities, including Down’s syndrome, cleft palate and club foot, can be singled out for abortion in Northern Ireland because of their disability. The provisions allow for them to be aborted right up to birth.

As has been said, we need a society that values people. We see the amazing Bill that has been brought forward for children and young people and people living with Down’s syndrome. We want a society where our legislation values those people and lets them see that we want them to exist and to contribute to society. Our abortion laws allow for them to be aborted up to birth. That tells people with disabilities that their lives are less worthy of protection than the lives of those without disability, and perpetuates deeply unhelpful stereotypes about their quality of life by suggesting that it might be better for them not to have been born.

The regulations matter because they send a clear message that people with disabilities are not equal to others—the Bill being discussed in Northern Ireland today says they are. In England and Wales, where a very similar law is in place, 90% of babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome before birth are aborted, and we know of women who have been offered multiple terminations of their unborn child, up to a very late stage of pregnancy, because their child has been diagnosed with the disability.

A submission to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on the 2021 regulations noted:

“The Committee will recall that the proposals consulted on by the Northern Ireland Office in respect of the 2020 Regulations were rejected by almost 80% of those responding. And yet this breadth of feeling was not reflected in the legislation which subsequently ensued.”

The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill

“goes some way to begin to redress that democratic deficit.”

The Bill indicates the Assembly’s capacity to legislate for itself on abortion, as well as the disparity between the regulations imposed without consent on Northern Ireland and the views of the majority of the population and their elected representatives. I urge the Government to rethink, to respect the devolution settlement and to allow Stormont the time and space to formulate a made-in and made-for Northern Ireland policy.

Finally, I pick up on a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell), who has left early. Never once in this debate is the baby mentioned by the pro-abortion speakers. It is all about the women. I value women. I am a woman myself. I have a baby myself. I value women, but I also value the life of the unborn. As my hon. Friend the Member for North Antrim has said, I am unashamedly pro-life. I will be a voice for the voiceless. We need to get to a point in this society where our laws legislate and create a society that values life and where people can choose life. Yes, we need additional services—I would be the first to say that—to help women who choose life, but I want our laws to value the unborn and value the baby in the womb.