In response to a FOI request made by Both Lives Matter, the Department of Health have revealed that (as of 23rd May 2023) 5,648 abortions have taken place in NI since the abortion law was changed.

Dawn McAvoy, Both Lives Matter lead said, “Nearly 6,000 abortions on average across the three years since the new abortion regulations were laid out at the end of March 2020, signals that annual abortion rates for NI have nearly doubled.*

This new law stands in stark contrast to our previous life affirming law. Before Westminster’s intervention around 2,000 lives were being saved from abortion every year. Our research, which was scrutinised and upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority, showed that our previous law saved the lives of over 100,000 people born between 1967 and 2017. Now this carefully balanced law has been reversed.”

Information released by The Northern Trust reveals that 87.8% of their healthcare staff, who could potentially be involved in abortion provision, have signalled ‘conscientious objection’.

A midwife who wishes to remain anonymous said: “With the law change it can sometimes be really challenging to be a midwife who simply wants to care for both lives. The fact that 87.8% of healthcare workers in one trust have said they won’t take part in abortions is a real encouragement for us, that we aren’t alone in supporting women, their families, and their unborn child.”

Dawn says: “Conscientious objection cannot be viewed as a barrier to ‘service provision’ but should be respected as a strong desire to care for both women and their unborn children as patients worthy of dignity and respect.

It is concerning that there is presently no legal framework in place to ensure full and accurate reporting on all terminations of pregnancies carried out in Northern Ireland .** There is no legal requirement to record why women are having abortions, in order to understand and respond to those needs at a policy level and offer alternatives. This structural failure is failing women and must be addressed.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

Available for interview:

Dawn McAvoy – Both Lives Matter lead

Contact: [email protected] or 07976 414 816

BOTH LIVES MATTER

* Our launch report and statistical research looking at abortion rates in NI and GB Both-Lives-Matter-report-January-2017-Web.pdf (bothlivesmatter.org)

** Northern Ireland Termination of Pregnancy Statistics 2021/22 (health-ni.gov.uk)

***We made our FOI requests in April 2023 and received the final response at the end of September 2023

Prior to the law changing, between 2010 and 2019 an average of 919 women per year travelled from Northern Ireland to England and Wales for abortions.

Since March 2020 there has been almost 2000 abortions per year. If we divide the 5,648 by 38 months (3 years 2 months from end March 2020 to 23 May 2023) – gives an average of 148 abortions per month. This equals 1776 per year, which is almost double the previous rate.

WE SEEK

• To re-frame the abortion debate
• To advocate for both lives in pregnancy and beyond.
• To create a life-affirming culture that values each woman and her unborn child.
• To restore lost legal protections for both women and unborn children.

“We stand together, from every background, all faiths or none, united in recognising the human dignity of everyone, ready to create a new culture, where compassion, solidarity and support for both lives is the norm.
We stand for the recognition and protection of human life. Because human life and dignity are at stake, abortion is about more than a private choice, it is of community or public interest. So we advocate for laws which seek to protect the lives and health of both women and unborn children.
We stand with women and unborn children calling for world-leading support & services pre and post birth and better care than abortion.
Let’s re-humanise the conversation.”

ABOUT THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE

We are the Evangelical Alliance. We join together hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals for the sake of the gospel. Representing our members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK.

We love Jesus and we want everyone in the UK to be given an opportunity to know Him.

We love His church, and we will do all we can to unite evangelicals, building confidence in the gospel and speaking as a trusted voice into society to see it changed for Him.

Working across the UK, with offices in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast, our members come together from across denominations, locations, age groups and ethnicities, all sharing a passion to know Jesus and make Him known.

Today a majority of MPs at Westminster have put the final seal to the abortion regulations for Northern Ireland and concluded the process of removing legal protections from Northern Ireland’s unborn babies.
 

Although 235 MPs voted in support of this extreme abortion regime, we are grateful to the136 MPs who rejected it. We understand this has been the biggest pro-life vote on abortion law seen in parliament in recent years.

Dawn McAvoy Both Lives Matter co-founder said, “Words cannot express the disappointment we feel at the refusal of Westminster to respect devolution, the democratic process and the voices of the many people who live and work here.

They have claimed sovereignty in order to introduce the termination of our children’s lives. With sovereignty comes a responsibility to protect and they have failed us.

Our focus returns to the Northern Ireland Assembly and we urge them to restore the protections which Westminster has removed from our children and from women in NI. To introduce care and support services, enabling women to choose life. 

As a society we can no longer simply listen to the virtue-signalling of “trust women”. Systemic failings require a structural response, and we must offer better to women than abortion. We have to enable women to choose life.
 

Both Lives will always Matter. Our vision remains; for a people & place who value the life & health of women & unborn children and pursues the wellbeing of both.”
 

ENDS

For further comment:
email – [email protected]
Dawn McAvoy – 07976414817 
Marion Woods – 07809 885390

Yesterday June 2, the assembly’s vote to reject abortions for non-fatal disabilities, has given us hope that our elected representatives do not aspire to the extreme abortion regime that pro-choice lobbyists have insisted on for Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Assembly voted 46 to 40  in favour of the motion; “That this Assembly welcomes the important intervention of disability campaigner Heidi Crowter and rejects the imposition of abortion legislation which extends to all non-fatal disabilities, including Down’s syndrome.”

We thank Heidi Crowter for her courage in stepping forward to bring the issue of discrimination in the womb to the fore.

The statistics recorded in England and Wales give evidence to the culture of discrimination against babies diagnosed in the womb with Down Syndrome* with up to 90 per cent of fetal diagnoses resulting in termination.

Abortions for reasons of disability are a small percentage of the total with around 2 per cent of the annual nearly 200 thousand abortions being performed under Ground E of the 1967 Abortion Act**, however it is important not to lose sight of the actual number of abortions that percentage represents. It is a sad fact that in the last five years over 16 thousand babies have been terminated in England & Wales and the majority of those are for non-fatal disabilities. We know that every year in England and Wales babies are terminated for what are minor and correctable conditions, such as cleft lip, cleft palate and club foot**.

Both Lives Matter services advocate Marion Woods comments, “As a society it is incumbent on us to learn from the evidence and stand firm against the introduction of such discrimination. It is hypocritical of us as citizens of NI to applaud and support the achievements of the participants of the Special Olympics if we do not first defend the rights of unborn babies with disabilities in the womb.

Both lives matter before and after birth and so we call on our local Assembly to ensure that women and families who face a prenatal diagnosis of disability are supported during pregnancy and post-birth.

We have within recent months witnessed the amazing contribution of NI citizens to ensuring the protection of our elderly and vulnerable in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now it is time to focus on doing likewise for our unborn babies, women and families in the face of the devastating global pandemic that is abortion.”

ENDS
For further comment:
Marion Woods; 07809 885390
Dawn McAvoy; 07976414817
email: [email protected]
 
* http://www.binocar.org/content/annrep2013_FINAL.pdf 
**https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/808556/Abortion_Statistics__England_and_Wales_2018__1_.pdf
**** https://righttolife.org.uk/standupandsmile/
“75 babies with either cleft lip or cleft palate as their principal condition were aborted between 2011 and 2018. The figures are likely to be much higher – for example a 2013 review by Eurocat showed 157 babies were aborted for cleft lip and palate in England and Wales between 2006 and 2010. However, the Department of Health & Social Care (DoHSC) recorded only 14 such abortions.”

It is barely believable that given the situation we are in, Westminster has today issued their new and extreme regulations on abortion services in Northern Ireland. This is despite 79 per cent of respondents, opposing their introduction. 

These changes include: 

• Abortion for any/no reason up to 12 weeks.
• Abortion up to 24 weeks for undefined mental or physical health reasons.
• Abortion for disability up to birth.
• Abortions can be performed by one medical professional including a midwife or nurse.
• Abortions can be performed outside hospitals, at clinics or in homes.
• Limited conscience protections for medical staff, mirroring England and Wales. 

Both Lives Matter has stood for the lives, health and dignity of women and their unborn children since it’s inception. These regulations today attempt to remove any worth and value from unborn children and to remove significant safeguards around the care of vulnerable women. We are heartbroken but will do all we can to continue to ensure the dignity and respect due to women and their unborn children is one day restored. 

Dawn McAvoy commented: 

“The ground is moving beneath us. We are a nation in the midst of a pandemic, grieving for what is to come; the loss of life, security and the futures we imagined. When death comes near, we are forced to face up to the fragility of human life and we hold our loved ones closer than ever. We fear death and we value life.  

Given this season of grief we face, it seems somewhat fitting, that it is now that the new regulatory framework for abortion provision in NI has been announced.

Tragically, too many abortions happen because sadly women fear life and choose death. 

It is more important than ever before that those of us who recognise and value both lives in every pregnancy, offer better than abortion. Women and girls deserve access to all the practical, material and emotional services they need to choose life. We all have a responsibility to enable women to choose life and Both Lives Matter will continue, now and into the future to help advocate for women to get the support services they need, for them and their baby.“

ENDS/ 

For further comment: 

Dawn McAvoy, co-founder Both Lives Matter: 07976414817
Marion Woods, services advocate Both Lives Matter: 07809 885390 

————————————————————————————————- 

Background: 

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 (NI EF Act), which was passed by Parliament in July 2019, placed a duty on the UK Government to reform Northern Ireland’s abortion law given the ongoing absence of devolved government.

Section 9 of the NI EF Act came into force on 22 October 2019 and has the following key components:

1. Firstly, it provided for decriminalisation of abortion through the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA), which came into effect on 22 October 2019. At this time a moratorium on abortion-related criminal prosecutions also came into effect, meaning that any police investigations or prosecutions currently underway at that time, in respect of an offence under sections 58 and 59 of the OAPA (regardless of when an offence may have been committed), will not be carried out, and no criminal proceedings may be brought or continued.

2. Secondly, it places the UK Government under a duty to make regulations to implement the recommendations in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW Report. The regulations must come into force by 31 March 2020.  

The recommendations in the CEDAW Report (set out in Chapter 5) do not mandate a specific legislative model. Rather, the CEDAW Report required abortion services to be decriminalised and provided as part of women’s reproductive healthcare by developing a suitable legal framework and ensuring access to services, as least in the cases of:

(i) Threat to the pregnant woman’s physical or mental health, without conditionality of “long-term or permanent” effects;

(ii) Rape and incest; and

(iii) Severe fetal impairment, including fatal fetal abnormality, without perpetuating stereotypes towards persons with disabilities and ensuring appropriate and ongoing support, social and financial, for women who decide to carry such pregnancies to term.

Tuesday March 31 is the day mandated by Westminster for the implementation of a new abortion framework in Northern Ireland. Our previous law recognised and protected both lives in every pregnancy, meaning that over 100 thousand people, individuals we all know and love are alive today. This has now been swept away and with the publication last week of the legal framework for abortion services, we can see the scale of the societal change we face.

Many NI politicians who supported a change in the law here, repeatedly said they opposed the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act and yet we have had that and more imposed on us. There will be unrestricted abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; abortion on undefined mental health grounds up until the twenty fourth week of pregnancy; abortion for ‘serious disability’ up to birth and only limited conscientious protections for some healthcare workers.

The government’s own consultation document which asked for responses from the public acknowledged that 79 per cent of respondents opposed any change to existing law. Those voices were ignored. Westminster have imposed on us all the worst out-workings of their own fifty years of abortion services which sees 500 abortions every day in England & Wales and over 98 per cent of all abortions are for socio economic reasons.

It is worth noting that the new abortion regime in NI when it comes will have a significant financial cost. In the shadow of a struggling health service and quite literally in the wake of loss of life due to a global pandemic, there is something incredibly distasteful in legislating for the ‘right’ to end a human life. Added to this is the tragedy that for the first time ever in NI, preborn babies diagnosed with a “serious disability” will face discrimination with abortion available right up to birth. 

Marion Woods, services advocate for Both Lives Matter stated, “The law may have changed but our position hasn’t and both lives in pregnancy will always matter. These are bad laws created through a bad process and in time, the Northern Ireland Assembly can and should restore lost protections and introduce new laws and policies fit for the 21^st century. Rather than continue down this path which dehumanises us as women and our preborn children, we must strive to create something truly humane; a new society where every life matters and all life is enabled, and women aren’t told they need to choose between their life and wellbeing and their own child.”

ENDS

for comment:
Marion Woods – 07809 885390
[email protected]

It is barely believable that given the situation we are in, Westminster has today issued their new and extreme regulations on abortion services in Northern Ireland. This is despite 79 per cent of respondents, opposing their introduction. 

These changes include: 

• Abortion for any/no reason up to 12 weeks.
• Abortion up to 24 weeks for undefined mental or physical health reasons.
• Abortion for disability up to birth.
• Abortions can be performed by one medical professional including a midwife or nurse.
• Abortions can be performed outside hospitals, at clinics or in homes.
• Limited conscience protections for medical staff, mirroring England and Wales. 

Both Lives Matter has stood for the lives, health and dignity of women and their unborn children since it’s inception. These regulations today attempt to remove any worth and value from unborn children and to remove significant safeguards around the care of vulnerable women. We are heartbroken but will do all we can to continue to ensure the dignity and respect due to women and their unborn children is one day restored. 

Dawn McAvoy commented: 

“The ground is moving beneath us. We are a nation in the midst of a pandemic, grieving for what is to come; the loss of life, security and the futures we imagined. When death comes near, we are forced to face up to the fragility of human life and we hold our loved ones closer than ever. We fear death and we value life.  

Given this season of grief we face, it seems somewhat fitting, that it is now that the new regulatory framework for abortion provision in NI has been announced.

Tragically, too many abortions happen because sadly women fear life and choose death. 

It is more important than ever before that those of us who recognise and value both lives in every pregnancy, offer better than abortion. Women and girls deserve access to all the practical, material and emotional services they need to choose life. We all have a responsibility to enable women to choose life and Both Lives Matter will continue, now and into the future to help advocate for women to get the support services they need, for them and their baby.“

ENDS/ 

————————————————————————————————- 

Background: 

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 (NI EF Act), which was passed by Parliament in July 2019, placed a duty on the UK Government to reform Northern Ireland’s abortion law given the ongoing absence of devolved government.

Section 9 of the NI EF Act came into force on 22 October 2019 and has the following key components:

1. Firstly, it provided for decriminalisation of abortion through the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA), which came into effect on 22 October 2019. At this time a moratorium on abortion-related criminal prosecutions also came into effect, meaning that any police investigations or prosecutions currently underway at that time, in respect of an offence under sections 58 and 59 of the OAPA (regardless of when an offence may have been committed), will not be carried out, and no criminal proceedings may be brought or continued.

2. Secondly, it places the UK Government under a duty to make regulations to implement the recommendations in paragraphs 85 and 86 of the CEDAW Report. The regulations must come into force by 31 March 2020.  

The recommendations in the CEDAW Report (set out in Chapter 5) do not mandate a specific legislative model. Rather, the CEDAW Report required abortion services to be decriminalised and provided as part of women’s reproductive healthcare by developing a suitable legal framework and ensuring access to services, as least in the cases of:

(i) Threat to the pregnant woman’s physical or mental health, without conditionality of “long-term or permanent” effects;

(ii) Rape and incest; and

(iii) Severe fetal impairment, including fatal fetal abnormality, without perpetuating stereotypes towards persons with disabilities and ensuring appropriate and ongoing support, social and financial, for women who decide to carry such pregnancies to term.

We are extremely disappointed, but sadly not surprised that those professional bodies charged with caring for both lives in pregnancy appear to be driven solely by a pro-abortion agenda which recognises only one life.

Whilst we acknowledge the reality of the new legislation within which we are living, there is no legal requirement for Northern Ireland to implement an abortion framework, which goes far beyond the British model of abortion provision. Rather than imitate something drawn up in the last century, that is out of step with modern advances in medical science and which is failing women and discarding preborn children, Northern Ireland can offer better.

Westminster imposed on Northern Ireland the removal of every explicit protection for unborn babies up to and beyond the point at which a child is capable of being born alive. These professional bodies are calling for an unrestricted ability to end the lives of preborn babies up to 24 weeks.

Today’s report calls for evidence based best practice and we agree; our question is: What evidence are these bodies considering?

Numerous studies and reports within the last ten years highlight concerns over the negative impact of abortion on women’s mental* and physical health.

Advances in medical science have increased the chances of survival for babies born below 24 weeks**; are enabling fetal surgery to save and improve the lives of seriously ill babies; reveal new understandings of neural development and fetal pain***.

Dawn McAvoy, co-founder of Both Lives Matter commented, “Whose life matters? There are some questions that science alone cannot answer. Terminations of pregnancy based on choice alone may be legal, however they are a crime against our very humanity. Women deserve better than medical bodies aligning more closely to pro-abortion ideologies than science-based evidence. We urge our newly formed Northern Ireland Assembly and the Secretary of State to seek to maximise protections and enable both lives as far as humanly possible, because both lives matter.”

*https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/abortion-and-mental-health-quantitative-synthesis-and-analysis-of-research-published-19952009/E8D556AAE1C1D2F0F8B060B28BEE6C3D
** https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50144741
***https://jme.bmj.com/content/46/1/3

Following a call from Baroness O’Loan, supported by Both Lives Matter and others, 31 MLAs have signed a petition to recall the Assembly to discuss the motion that legislation on abortion will be most appropriately determined by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Dawn McAvoy of Both Lives Matter commented, “The majority of people in Northern Ireland do not support the abortion regime being imposed by Westminster. Baroness O’Loan has consistently tried to prevent these changes and has led the calls to reconvene Stormont. Today 31 MLAs have heeded that call.”

McAvoy continues, “Northern Ireland has been without government for over 1000 days. Abortion is not, and never has been the stumbling block. We hope that it might now be the issue that helps bring the Assembly back. We recognise that there is not a unified position on abortion, but there does appear to be agreement that this should be decided at Stormont rather than Westminster. We have done all we can to allow each MLA to stand up and say whether they support the Westminster legislation or oppose it. It is over to them now.”

On Thursday 26 September, Baroness O’Loan, with the support of groups such as Both Lives Matter, launched a petition calling for Stormont to be reconvened. The petition has received over 25,000 signatures and can be viewed here

On the 10th October Both Lives Matter sent an email to all MLAs asking them to pledge to return to the Assembly before 22 October, to appoint Executive Ministers and to deal with matters of major importance. MLAs were asked to respond by Wednesday 16 October at 12pm. More than 30 MLAs signed the pledge.

In the interim, Baroness O’Loan renewed her call for the Assembly to be reconvened and various groups became aware that there is a mechanism for 31 MLAs to do this under the standing orders of the Assembly. Unfortunately, some MLAs and commentators seem unaware of this timeline and have labelled the recall of the Assembly a publicity stunt. This initiative was driven by Baroness O’Loan and supported by various pro-life groups. How individual MLAs and parties respond is a matter for them, but those behind the initiative are committed to stopping radical change to Northern Ireland’s abortion laws. To do so requires the formation of the Executive before 22 October and the first step on that journey is to recall the Assembly.

If an Executive is reformed, with the appointment of the ministerial positions agreed by midnight on Monday 21 October, then the radical abortion regime imposed by English, Welsh and Scottish MPs will not become law.

Both Lives Matter has invited every MLA to be a part of that process. Some have signed the recall petition, others have indicated their willingness to show up on Monday. 

Dawn McAvoy says, “We know that the majority of people in Northern Ireland do not support the abortion regime being imposed by Westminster. We have done all we can to allow each MLA to stand up and say whether they support the Westminster legislation or oppose it.”

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill is listed to be brought to the House of Commons on Monday 8 July 2019. Plans have been publicised to amend the bill on Monday to include changes to the law on abortion in Northern Ireland.

Dawn McAvoy, co-founder of Both Lives Matter comments,

“Abortion is a devolved issue. This move would potentially set a problematic constitutional precedent which could affect parliamentarians and citizens from Wales and Scotland, and Northern Ireland again in future on a whole range of issues. Even if caveats are included in the amendments to give any future Executive a say in the matter within a specific timeframe, the process remains constitutionally unacceptable.”

“As an issue of process, it is inappropriate to attempt to amend a Bill about the formation and function of the Northern Ireland Executive, to include potentially far-reaching changes to the specific and sensitive issue of abortion.”

“This remains a sensitive political moment, talks are ongoing between the Northern Ireland political parties and amending the bill in such a way is not conducive to an agreement being reached. There are several court judgements pending and there has been no public consultation about any proposed change in the law among the people of Northern Ireland. To change the law on abortion in such a potentially dramatic way could result in unwise, unsafe and culturally unsuitable legislation.”

Dawn continues,

“We are deeply frustrated and disappointed that a relatively small number of pro-abortion activists who see unrestricted abortion as progress for women seem to be driving the political agenda at Westminster. This is at odds with what most women want and presents a small and sad vision for women and children. Most people in Northern Ireland do not want Westminster to act to impose potentially far-reaching changes to our abortion legislation[1] and most conservative MPs do not favour undermining devolution in this way[2].”

“Our distinct law, which allows for abortion in a more carefully regulated way, means that over 100,000 people are alive in Northern Ireland today because politicians here did not implement the 1967 Abortion Act[3].”

“We recognise that a vote on any proposed amendments on abortion would be a conscience vote. We are simply asking MPs, whatever their view on abortion, to respect devolution and the parliamentary process on this sensitive moral and political issue.”

“Finally, as always we will continue to believe and profess a better vision for women and their unborn children where both lives are protected and enabled as far as humanly possible.”

ENDS/

[1] A ComRes poll from last year showed that two-thirds of women (and 70% of 18-34 year olds) in Northern Ireland don’t want abortion laws imposed by Westminster https://bothlivesmatter.org/66-of-women-in-northern-ireland-do-not-want-abortion-laws-imposed-by-westminster?utm_source=BLM+Press+List&utm_campaign=bba8cd4f82-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_14_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b7eeea44e0-bba8cd4f82-&mc_cid=bba8cd4f82&mc_eid=%5bUNIQID%5d

[2]https://bothlivesmatter.org/72-of-conservative-mps-reject-undermining-of-devolution-to-impose-abortion-on-northern-ireland?utm_source=BLM+Press+List&utm_campaign=bba8cd4f82-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_14_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b7eeea44e0-bba8cd4f82-&mc_cid=bba8cd4f82&mc_eid=%5bUNIQID%5d

[3]This figure was robustly tested and upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/both-lives-matter-a17-370344.html