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Are Sinn Féin and the SDLP feeling heat on the abortion issue?

This week, I saw Micheal Kelly, the editor of the Irish Catholic, tweet that the two largest nationalist parties in the north were getting some heat at the doorsteps because of their stance on abortion. 

The issue has become a cause of public controversy ever since Sinn Féin and many of the SDLP worked towards or welcomed the imposition of abortion on the region from Westminster. Both parties have called for commissioning of abortion services across Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin and the SDLP, along with the Greens and Alliance MLAs, also voted in favour a measure to criminalise those who pray or offer help to women at abortion centres. 

While the cost-of-living crisis is undoubtedly the primary issue in people’s minds right now ahead of the election, Kelly said it was “interesting to hear Sinn Féin activists admitting that they’re getting a lot of grief on the doorsteps in the North for their pro-abortion stance.”

He said he was then contacted by a canvasser from the SDLP who said they were also “getting it in the neck” on the same issue from some voters.

While it’s always difficult to know exactly how much voters weigh up abortion when considering their choices in an election, it certainly has been more visible as a matter of concern these past few weeks, with pro-life group Precious Life protesting at the offices of MLAs who have voted in favour of pro-abortion legislation on a routine basis in recent weeks. 

In villages, towns and cities across the North in the past few weeks, brightly coloured Aontú posters have started to appear, pushing the issue of abortion and the right to life to the forefront in the election battleground. As a new party founded by a former Sinn Féin TD which makes no secret of its ambition to overturn Northern Ireland’s Westminster-imposed abortion law, the growing presence of Aontú may be causing some discomfort, even if its too early to tell whether that will result in seats in Stormont. 

So are the SDLP and Sinn Féin feeling heat at the doors because of the abortion issue? They came to my door – and their response was interesting. 

 An SDLP councillor, who was canvassing for votes for long-standing SDLP MLA for Mid-Ulster, Patsy McGlone, arrived at my door on Tuesday, handing me the party’s election leaflet. It wasn’t until I brought up the imposition of abortion and the SDLP’s vote to bring in censorship zones to banish pro-lifers from the grounds of abortion centres and hospitals performing late-term abortions, that he rooted in his folder and produced a flyer that promised to address my concerns – and assure me that the SDLP were very much ‘pro-life’. 

I had just raised the issue of Patsy McGlone’s recent decision to side with the most vociferous of pro-abortion politicians in the party to back the ‘safe access zones’ bill, passed last month, which criminalises prayer and makes offering a woman a leaflet on crisis pregnancy help an offence punishable by a £2,500 fine. 

He then said that he was also pro-life – and pointed to the leaflet addressing pro-life concerns which said Mr McGlone was “a pro-life candidate”. 

It was obvious that the leaflet had been prepared to answer pro-life concerns at the door, which is interesting in of itself. Clearly, the party is getting at least some heat at the doors if they have felt the need to produce a leaflet – for pro-lifers only – addressing concerns.  

Significantly, the pro-life flyer wasn’t included inside the election leaflet which was first presented to me, nor was abortion or being pro-life mentioned anywhere in the official literature, not even in the section on healthcare – which focused solely on the provision of care workers and mental health waiting lists. There was nothing about life-affirming care for women, nothing relating to pregnancy or re-establishing the pro-life laws demolished over the heads of the people by Westminster in 2019. 

Last month, Belfast mum Maura O’Neill, won praise when she put up a special message on her gate for those politicians who are currently knocking on doors looking for votes on 5th May.

A video just emerged which indicates that some SDLP representatives don’t seem to appreciate being asked questions by pro-life voters.

MLA Síneád McLaughlin told a zoom call that Derry voters who raised the issue with her needed to “get a life”.

Declan McGuiness, brother of the late Sinn Féin leader, Martin McGuiness said that Ms McLaughlin’s attitude was a “two fingers up to Derry people”.

In the full clip of the Zoom call with Alliance for Choice, Ms McLaughlin boasted about the SDLP’s ‘strong pro-choice youth branch’ while castigating those who asked her about the SDLP’s views on abortion. In an indication of the continued concern from the public about the North’s abortion laws and the SDLP’s abandonment of its pro-life stance, she said questions relating to the party’s position on abortion were, to her visible annoyance, “never ending”.

“In relation to the conscience view, it’s better for me as a pro-choice candidate to work within my party to change minds and to change hearts and to move others along and advance in their positions, and move them along to mine’s.

“And I think I’ve had success in the past two years in my party to move party colleagues to a pro-choice position and I see that as a success. It’s not as far as I want it to be, but I’m certainly moving hearts and minds more in my direction.

“We’ve a very strong SDLP youth pro-choice youth branch and I hope that that is indicative of the future. I want this to be normalised. 

“This is about reproductive health and decriminalisation has happened, and I just want to get on with the delivery of services with no questions asked about “what is your position?” And I’m sick of going around doors and listening to this never-ending “what’s your position?” and “what’s not your position?” around abortion – like seriously, 2022, go and get a life,” she said.

Online, people have expressed disbelief at the remarks. One person said the SDLP were “feeling the heat and rightly so”. 

“Outright arrogance. Lovely way to treat voters. Obviously feeling the pressure,” another comment read.

“Hope she continues to be asked the same question at every Derry home,” another Facebook user added. “People First,” one person said, referring to the SDLP’s campaign slogan, adding, “unless you ask a question we don’t like!”

This piece was first published on Gript. 

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