Petition to: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Stormont Party Leaders
Repeal Northern Ireland Abortion Law
Repeal Northern Ireland Abortion Law

Abortion is being imposed upon Northern Ireland by the Government in Westminster after politicians in the Province refused to break the political deadlock and reconvene the Assembly at Stormont.
An Act was passed in Parliament placing Westminster under a legal obligation to introduce a new abortion framework to Northern Ireland by the 31st March. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) therefore carried a public consultation in advance of drafting the new framework.
The Government have ignored the fact 79% of those who participated in the consultation do not want any change in Northern Ireland’s abortion laws. These laws have come into imediate effect, and abortions will begin to take place from 1st April 2020.
These laws introduce:
- Abortion on demand up to 12 weeks (including sex-selective abortion)
- Defacto abortion on demand up to 24 weeks
- Disability-selective abortion up to birth, for any disability including Down’s Syndrome, cleft lip and club foot
- Abortions will be available in GP surgeries throughout Northern Ireland
- No requirement that a doctor must be involved in an abortion – midwives and nurses will be able to provide abortions
- Limited conscientious objection legal protection for health professionals who don’t want to perform abortions
- Legal abortion of twins - select one to live and one to die
- Young girls able to obtain abortions without their parents’ consent
- Babies born alive after abortion left to die
- Legalised partial birth abortion
- No pain relief given to babies during abortion
- Fast tracked abortions with no consideration period
- State authority to force women to have abortions
- No provision for independent counselling for women seeking abortion
A new poll, organised by the University of Liverpool and Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council, has shown that 58% of Sinn Féin voters and 54% of DUP voters want their country’s new abortion framework to only allow abortions when the mother’s life is at risk.
Only 5% of all voters support introducing abortion to 24 weeks - in line with the Government’s proposals.
It is vital that this extreme abortion regime is repealed. The regulations have come into force but will fall if a resolution affirming the regulations is not passed by both the House of Commons and House of Lords within 28 sitting days.
This must be stopped.
Introducing abortion on demand to Northern Ireland would cost over £5m a year, putting more pressure on an already stretched health service. Rolling out the service is likely to cost much more in terms of start-up costs and will take vital health service time and resources from fighting the Coronavirus.
We are calling on the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Party Leaders in Northern Ireland to respect the devolution settlement and not impose these undemocratic regulations on the people of Northern Ireland.
We are also calling on MLAs to bring forward the legislation as soon as possible to Stormont to repeal this extreme change to the law.
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Petition to: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Stormont Party Leaders