Precious Life to Apply to be Involved as Third Party Intervener in Judicial Review
On Thursday 26th January, the legal team representing a woman who was charged with supplying illegal abortion drugs to her pregnant under-age daughter in Northern Ireland in 2013 successfully applied for a judicial review of the Public Prosecution Service’s decision to prosecute the woman under section 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The judicial review hearing will be on the 3rd and 4th May 2017.
The woman’s legal team argues that the PPS were wrong to charge the woman with supplying the illegal abortion drugs and that to bring the woman before the courts would be a breach of her Article 3 and Article 8 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Abortion is a criminal offence in Northern Ireland, governed by sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and section 25 of the Criminal Justice Act (NI) 1945.
Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, was at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast today to hear the application for the judicial review.
“Precious Life is greatly concerned that yet another attempt has been made to undermine our pro-life laws in Northern Ireland. Our pro-life laws recognise that the unborn child is a human being, a person, deserving of protection under the law. The purpose of sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Act is to protect the unborn child from “any poison or other noxious thing” or “any instrument” that would tear the unborn child from the sanctuary of his or her mother’s womb.
“If a crime has been committed, it is for the PSNI to investigate. If the Public Prosecution Service decides that there is sufficient evidence that that crime had been committed and that it is in the public interest to put the person on trial, of course that person should be brought to justice.
“Precious Life believes it is in the public interest to bring to court the mother who supplied illegal abortion drugs to her pregnant daughter in 2013. We must treat the criminal law protecting the unborn child as seriously as we treat the criminal laws which protect us.
“Pro-abortion bodies like the Family Planning Association, British Humanist Society and the Royal College of Midwives have applied to be third party interveners in this judicial review. Precious Life will be applying to be granted leave to be involved as a third-party intervener to represent the rights of the unborn child in this legal challenge.
“Precious Life believes there needs to be better care and support for young girls who find themselves in crisis pregnancies. Abortion is not the answer.”