“LIFE IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE”
Bernadette Smyth, the director Precious Life, and her legal team, Carlin Solicitors, Belfast, arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast this morning for the first day of the Attorney General’s appeal against Mr Justice Horner’s ruling last December in which he declared that abortion law in Northern Ireland, which protects unborn children conceived in rape and incest and unborn children diagnosed with life-limiting disabilities, is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“I am hoping and praying for the success of the Attorney General’s appeal,” Bernadette Smyth commented.
“Last November, the people of Northern Ireland were disgusted and outraged that a highly esteemed judge like Mr Justice Horner could deny the very humanity of a sick little baby alive in his or her mother’s womb. Rather than listening to and objectively considering the facts before him, Judge Horner allowed himself to be swayed by the cold, cruel and ridiculous arguments put forward by the Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International.
“He dared to say that ‘there is no human life to protect’ when an unborn baby has been diagnosed with anencephaly and other life-limiting disabilities. He degraded any woman who became pregnant through rape by calling her a ‘mere receptacle’ for the ‘child of a rapist’. But the right to life of all members of the human family, whether born or unborn, with or without a disability, irrespective of the crime committed against his or her mother, is enshrined in international human rights law and our laws, namely sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and section 25 of the Criminal Justice Act 1945, defend that right.
“Ever since Judge Horner’s diabolical ruling, pressure has been mounting on our politicians to legalise the killing of our unborn children with life-limiting disabilities. But just because governments in other countries permit the killing of their unborn children, this does not mean that Stormont must do the same. The term ‘fatal foetal abnormality’ is not a medical diagnosis and cannot be defined. It is medically meaningless and grossly offensive and hurtful to mothers and their unborn babies. If our politicians were to legalise abortion for unborn babies with life-limiting disabilities and were to statutorily sanction this term ‘fatal foetal abnormality’, it would lead to the bloodshed of countless innocent unborn children in Northern Ireland.
“Unborn children who are claimed to be conceived in rape or incest will be aborted right up to the point of viability. Even though there is no condition, none whatsoever, where a healthcare professional can determine with certainty that an unborn child will die before birth or immediately after birth, and even though a healthcare professional’s diagnosis can be wrong, which has been proven in a number of studies and in testimonies of mothers who received a misdiagnosis of their unborn child’s condition, women will be abandoned, left vulnerable and frightened, and coerced into choosing abortion for their very sick babies, right up to the moment of birth. The effects of this diabolical ruling won’t stop there. It would open the flood gates and lead to abortion on demand.
“The right to life is granted neither by judges nor politicians, but it is their duty to protect it. I hope and pray that Judge Horner’s decision will be overturned and the appeal will be upheld.”