PRESS RELEASE: Precious Life send a powerful reminder that an incredible 300,000 people say NO to abortion in Northern Ireland
-- PRESS RELEASE --
Date: 17th October 2018
Precious Life send a powerful reminder that an incredible 300,000 people say NO to abortion in Northern Ireland
Today at Stormont, Precious Life sent a strong message to Westminster, Northern Ireland politicians and the international abortion lobby that an incredible 300,000 people in Northern Ireland are emphatically opposed to a change to our pro-life laws. Pro-abortion groups such as Amnesty claimed last week that a survey of 1,000 people is representative of changing attitudes to abortion in Northern Ireland, however this figure only represents 0.05% of Northern Ireland’s population and 0.08% of the electorate. In striking contrast, Precious Life can testify that through their on-the-ground work on the streets of Northern Ireland every single day, a stunning 300,000 people have said a resolute no the cruelty of abortion and an emphatic YES to life.
In 2016, Precious Life presented a 300,000-strong petition to the Northern Ireland Assembly calling for the protection of unborn babies and their mothers from abortion in Northern Ireland. Forty seven boxes full of individuals’ names and Northern Ireland postal addresses were then delivered to the Stormont Parliament Buildings. These boxes contained a whole range of pro-life petitions from numerous Precious Life Campaigns including: 250,000 petitions collected from campaigns such as: the Abortion – not in my name Campaign; the Basic Right Campaign; the Protect the Human Campaign, and petitions opposing the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.
The collection of 35,000 petitions were also presented as part of the Project Justice campaign (September 2018) as well as 30,000 ‘Stop Marie Stopes’ petition postcards. Furthermore, 20,000 petitions from Northern Ireland presented to the European Parliament in Brussels as part of the One of Us Campaign in opposition to EU funding of research involved in the destruction of human embryos. Also, over 25,000 petitions were presented as part of the Project Love Campaign in opposition to the then Justice Minister David Ford’s public consultation on changing the law to allow abortion for children conceived in rape or those with life-limiting disabilities.
On Friday, in a presentation to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly Committee, Bernadette Smyth told the Committee about Precious Life’s current campaign ‘Personhood begins at conception’ which is ongoing and so far 15,000 petitions have been collected from people recognising that human life starts at conception, opposing a change to our laws.
"From our activism on the streets of Northern Ireland, we know that there is a powerful and resolute demand for better resources and care than the violence of abortion. I would stress the very real need for better provision of perinatal hospice care, a much needed service we highlighted through our Project Love Campaign. There is virtually no on-the-ground demand for abortion in Northern Ireland, and when properly informed, the vast majority of the general public see abortion as a barbaric and regressive answer to unplanned pregnancies. Moreover, Westminster have no right to speak for the people of Northern Ireland. People here want to have their voices heard and they want the principles of devolution and our democratic process respected and upheld," Bernadette Smyth concluded.
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