DAVID FORD HELL-BENT ON LEGALISING ABORTION OF DISABLED BABIES
David Ford MLA yesterday submitted a private member's bill seeking to change the law to allow abortion of unborn babies with life-limiting disabilities.
According to David Ford, his proposals for legalised abortion “is not about disability” but solely targeted towards unborn babies with “no prospect of life”.
In response to the news of yet another Private Members Bill seeking to legalise abortion of unborn babies with life-limiting disabilities, Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, the leading pro-life group in Northern Ireland, stated:
“I cannot believe that David Ford is still using the medically meaningless and dehumanising term ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. Considering the wealth of evidence that is available right now and the testimonies of leading experts who came over to Northern Ireland last month to share their invaluable experience of caring for babies with life-limiting disabilities and their families, it is incredible that David Ford is so narrow minded and hell bent on changing the law that he still refuses to acknowledge that babies diagnosed with a wide range of life-limiting conditions can live for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and even years.
“What David Ford really means when he says “no prospect of life” is that babies with disabilities are unworthy of life; unworthy of love and care. He may think that way, but the people of Northern Ireland don’t think that way.
“In April 2015, it was revealed that, of the 25,320 responses to David Ford’s consultation on changing the law to allow abortion of babies with life-limiting disabilities, 25,140 of the responses opposed his proposals for the fatal discrimination of disabled unborn babies in Northern Ireland.
“Over 99% of the people who responded to the consultation made clear that they want unborn babies with disabilities to remain protected under our laws. In fact, a similar proposal brought forward by MLAs Stewart Dickson and Trevor Lunn was debated and defeated in the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2016. So, contrary to what David Ford believes, there is no desire to change the law in Northern Ireland. David Ford has completely disregarded the will of the people of Northern Ireland by imposing this new Private Members Bill.
“What mothers need when their precious baby has been diagnosed with a life-limiting disability is perinatal hospice care. Abortion is not the answer.”