Dear SPUC supporter,

Please ask your MP to vote against regulations giving the UK Government power to commission abortion services in Northern Ireland.

Brandon Lewis MP, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has laid down regulations giving him the power to direct the First Minister and other Northern Ireland politicians and health officials to implement the abortion regulations imposed on the Province when the devolved assembly was not sitting.

Last year, the Westminster Government laid regulations which imposed an extreme abortion regime on Northern Ireland. However, the devolved Assembly has not acted quickly enough to commission these “services”, for the liking of Mr Lewis and abortion campaigners. Hence this unprecedented move to force the Northern Ireland authorities to speed up the killing of unborn children.
 

Illegitimate power grab

Under the devolution settlement, issues relating to abortion are “reserved” to the Stormont Assembly. Mr Lewis’s actions are an illegitimate power grab, which undermines the democratic viability of the sitting Executive. They would mean that the people of Northern Ireland would have no realistic prospect of changing the abortion laws in the future.
 

Urgent action needed

Although the regulations are already in effect, the parliamentary mechanism used means they must be voted on within 28 days, or they will lapse. The earliest we expect the vote to take place is the week beginning 26 April, which makes this an urgent task.

Please contact your MP and ask him/her to vote against The Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 and to speak against them when they are debated in Parliament.

Some points you might make in your letter:
 

• 79% of respondents to the public consultation on introducing abortion opposed any change to Northern Ireland’s pre-existing pro-life laws.
• Powers over abortion are reserved to the Assembly under the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Brandon Lewis’s actions fly in the face of the devolution settlement.
• Unlike when Parliament passed legislation imposing abortion on Northern Ireland in 2019, there is a functioning devolved Assembly at Stormont. There is no possible excuse for intervening in a devolved matter in this way.
• MLAs at Stormont – the democratically elected representatives of the people of Northern Ireland – voted to reject the abortion regulations last year
• The abortion regulations Mr Lewis is seeking to impose are even more extreme than those in the rest of the UK - permitting abortion on demand and even abortion up to birth in some cases.

Please contact your MP now (you can find their contact details here) asking him/her to speak out against this extreme abortion regime and to vote down the statutory instrument. 

With all good wishes,


Michael Robinson
SPUC Director of Campaigns for Northern Ireland