Politics
Thursday June 22, 2000
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NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY REJECTS ABORTION
BELFAST, June 22 (LSN.ca) - Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly voted overwhelmingly to oppose the extension of Britain's 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. Catholic World News (CWN) reports that the pro-life motion to block the pro-abortion law was supported by 79 of the 108 Assembly members. Jim Wells, Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member for South Down, said after the vote: "It was remarkable to see the alliances formed in support of my motion, with cross-party and cross-denominational differences set aside." He explained that "The idea of the motion was to put down a marker for the United Kingdom government, to let them know that any extension of the 1967 Abortion Act into Northern Ireland would be in the face of united opposition from the local community."
The 1967 Act, which currently does not apply to Northern Ireland, allows abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation where a woman's physical or mental health is at risk. In 1998, 177,871 abortions were carried out in England and Wales, most of them prior to the 24-week limit. During the four-hour debate in Belfast on June 20, Wells told the Assembly: "Since the 1967 Act became law, 5.3 million abortions have been carried out in Great Britain - more than the populations of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic combined."
Commenting on the case, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children chairman Betty Gibson said, "It will also show the pro-abortion lobby in the Irish Republic that they cannot use Northern Ireland as an excuse to try to undermine the ban (on abortion) that the Irish people voted to enshrine in their constitution."
For more see the CWN story at:
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=4220
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