On the Abortion Law due to take place tomorrow in Northern Ireland

Open Letter to Michelle O'Neill on tomorrow's deadline regarding abortion legislation

Dear Michelle

I am writing this on account of tomorrow's deadline regarding the legalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland. I am fully aware that Sinn Fein is the party who is holding up the reconvening of Stormont and thus will be remembered as the party who helped force abortion to seven months in the North, which is FYI, is actually past viability, meaning a child can survive outside the womb at this point.

Oh, the irony, Michelle. Can your party really be the one who complained about Catholics being discriminated against during the Troubles? Have you read the list of HORRIFIC details that will be forced on Northern Ireland? Let’s have a look at some of them together, shall we? 

And please, feel free to tick the ones that are especially ironic, considering the horrors that have been foisted on the people of Northern Ireland during the Troubles and beforehand...

Late-term abortion, for any reason, up to 7 MONTHS (28 weeks); In other words, prior to 28-weeks there will be no law on abortion.

All the discrimination in the North, Michelle, has just been taken to a whole new level. No longer does it matter whether you are Catholic or Protestant. Preborn children of either religion (or even none) will all be treated to equal violence in the womb, as per the new law. And this is progress, you say?

Northern Ireland could become the LATE-TERM ABORTION capital of Europe

I know you want the North to prosper, Michelle (or so you say), but is this really the best method for which this region might become famous? 

Sex-selective abortion will be legalised. 

Which by the way, has led to at least 23 million missing women in the world. And counting. And I thought you believed in, ahem, women's rights? Just not in the womb, is that right?

Legalised partial-birth abortions

Don't know if you're familiar with these, Michelle (and if not, why not?) but this is what Planned Parenthood are (in)famous for. If you think the treatment of Northern Irish prisoners of war was appalling, you should read these, commonly known as “dilation and evacuation”. PP also like to make a tidy profit off selling pieces of preborn children, for which they are currently in court, trying to deny all charges. Sound barbaric to you? No? Perhaps this how you plan to bring in extra revenue to the North, then?

Disability-selective abortion of babies with Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot will be introduced to Northern Ireland

All those years of discrimination in the North, Michelle, for being the wrong religion, etc. And at times, being killed for it too. And now Sinn Fein have brought discrimination to a whole new level, haven't you? Who would have believed it?

No pain relief be given to babies during abortions. 

And yet you claim to be opposed to torture, as was frequently carried out during the Troubles. How can this be, Michelle?

Babies born alive after abortion to be left to die

In 1973, 14 year old Phillip Raftery was beaten, shot and left to die in West Belfast. And now you cheer for a regime that will leave helpless children to die in their own blood, alone and in pain, all with the full “thumbs up” from the law and cheering from you. As Abort 73 so aptly point out, with their “would it bother us more if they used guns?” T-shirt, when children are the victims of gun violence, the world is outraged. When children are the victims of abortion violence, the world barely notices.

No law to help prevent boyfriends from coercing a woman into having an abortion. 

Single mother of three Caroline Moreland was killed weeks before the ceasefire. Mother of ten Jean McConville was killed without leaving a trace, her children left orphaned. So how do you plan to protect vulnerable mothers from these abortion barbarities, Michelle? 

No conscientious objection protections in law for pro-life doctors who don’t want to perform abortions.

This sounds remarkably like the North’s past, Michelle. And with so many doctors in the North opposed to being part of killing their own patients and not wishing to be part of even more bloodshed in this region, do now you wish to force doctors to become conscientious objectors? Where are all your high-minded principles now, Michelle?

The State will have the authority to force women to have abortions

This has already happened in the UK, Michelle. One woman was granted the right to give birth but another woman is about to have a forced abortion, the judge deeming it acceptable to hold her down by force if necessary. I thought you believed in “my body, my choice”? This sounds remarkably like an assault to me… Do you plan to speak up for these vulnerable women?

No requirement that statistics be kept. 

After all the hidden murders in the North, Michelle, I would have thought this one at least would have rankled with you. All the hidden secrets… And now, no records need to be retained on complications, hemorrhaging, even deaths of women. Continuing the silence on all of the murders of the Troubles. 

  

Abortion on-demand would cost Northern Ireland £5 million a year. 

Oh the Biggie, Michelle. You want more investment in the North but this money has to come from somewhere, doesn't it? And you want to invest in the North’s future, yet are hell-bent on deliberately killing a portion of that future generation. Hmmm...

But look at this, Michelle. This image from The Irish Volunteer in 1914, believe it or not, is on An Phoblacht’s website (where will all the irony end?). Have you actually studied your history on Ireland’s fight for freedom? Let me give you the full line: 

“Bullet and bayonet, rope and poison [my emphasis] were the instruments by which English law was enforced for centuries…”

And yet you want British abortion laws that will poison vulnerable children in the womb, all forcibly paid for by the UK taxpayer. Oh, Michelle...

And as for Mary Lou’s “England get out of Ireland” poster on St. Patrick’s Day in New York, cripes, what can I say? Talk about a redner! Get out of Ireland, but leave us your “progressive” abortion laws, eh?

At least 186 children have been killed in the Troubles, Michelle, including four unborn children (which of course, I am fully aware, you don't actually count. Try explaining that to their bereft families…) And yet you are about to pave the way for thousands of children to be poisoned, dismembered and given a lethal injection (which is the primary form of execution in the USA). All in the name of “choice”, eh? 

I have written a number of blogs on Sinn Fein and your party's hypocrisy on refusing to take your seats in Westminster, yet as The Life Institute’s Niamh Uí  Bhrian put it so well: 

 …[Sinn Fein’s] decision to go cap in hand to the British Parliament to seek direct rule on abortion has upended centuries of Republican tradition. 

The one thing certain in all of this, Michelle, is that since Sinn Fein's seats have been slashed in the Republic in the recent May elections and now that a general election is approaching in the UK, the same is certain to occur in the North. on't believe me? Let's all watch this space, shall we? 

Maria Horan

MA Women's Studies