Precious Life demand answers on abortion from NI Health Department
Precious Life have sent a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health (DoH) in Northern Ireland to question the legality of 13 abortions that were performed in Northern Ireland last year. Official Statistics released by the DoH today (Wednesday 24th Jan 2018) revealed that 13 “termination of pregnancies” were carried out in Northern Ireland in the year 2016/17. Precious Life say serious questions must be answered by the Department, and criminal investigations launched if the DoH is found to have broken the law.
Director of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth said, “The Department of Health claim 13 live pregnancies were ‘terminated for indications that are legally acceptable and medically approved in Northern Ireland.’"
Ms Smyth explained, “The law in Northern Ireland protects babies before birth, while permitting all necessary life-saving medical treatment for pregnant women. Killing an unborn child is a criminal offence, but a doctor would not be held liable in the rare cases when an unborn child dies as an unintentional side effect of the life-saving treatment administered to the mother.”
She added, “Even in England and Wales, with a population of over 56 million, only 16 abortions ‘to save the life of the mother’ have been performed in the past 10 years. Yet here in Northern Ireland, with a significantly smaller population, the DoH claim that in one year alone, 13 abortions were required!”
We have sent a Freedom of Information request to the DoH asking what were the life-threatening conditions of pregnant women that required NI Trusts to perform these 13 abortions. Could these conditions not have been treated without the loss of life of the child? Their statistics suggest that the Department of Health is either failing to provide adequate medical care to pregnant women in NI, or breaking our laws on abortion.”
Bernadette Smyth concluded, “The Department of Health have serious questions to answer. If they are flouting the law by directly and intentionally terminating the life of unborn children, then they must be held accountable and if needed, criminal charges brought to bear.”
Precious Life will continue working to keep abortion not only illegal but unthinkable.