NEWS UPDATE: Precious Life congratulate a mother for successfully appealing her daughter's forced abortion
Northern Ireland’s leading pro-life group Precious Life welcome the decision made by the English Court of Appeal to overturn a ruling that would have forced a disabled Nigerian woman to have an abortion against her will. The appeal was brought by the woman's mother, a former midwife. In response to her appeal, three senior judges overturned the previous ruling of the Court of Protection.
Justice Nathalie Lieven, who made the original ruling and is a well-known abortion advocate, said she had to act in the woman’s “best interests, not on society’s views of termination”. Justice Lieven argued on behalf of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission that the abortion law in Northern Ireland discriminates against women and girls and said it was in breach of Article 3 of the ECHR, which forbids torture and "inhuman or degrading" treatment or punishment. However, most sane and decent people would agree that ordering a woman to undergo an abortion, against her will, amounts to some of the most inhuman and degrading treatment imaginable.
Director of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth, said, "We congratulate this mother for being a voice for the unborn child and for fighting to save her grandchild's life. As well as saving her grandchild, she has also protected her daughter from the potential physical and psychological harm that abortion inflicts on women. Her daughter’s baby, who is 22 weeks gestation, could in fact survive outside the womb. A new study has shown that 22 weeks is arguably the new point of viability for unborn babies. Thanks to the actions of this mother an innocent baby was spared from the horror of a late-term D&E abortion."
In a shocking report of the case it was said that an NHS doctor told the Nigerian woman that she would go to sleep and when she woke up her "baby would no longer be in her tummy but she would get a new doll.”
Mrs Smyth commented on this, “How sick and twisted to compare an unborn baby to a toy! This late term abortion would have left this woman psychologically damaged and traumatised. There are absolutely no health benefits to abortion and a baby can never be replaced. Abortion is an irreversible and barbaric attack on an innocent human being. This late-term abortion would have involved manually crushing the baby to fit through the cervix; and a pliers-like instrument is used to crush the skull, arms and legs.”
Bernadette Smyth concluded, “We thank everyone involved in preventing this forced abortion through powerful prayers and online petitions. We particularly congratulate this pregnant woman's mother for winning her appeal and ultimately saving her unborn grandchild and protecting the wellbeing of her daughter. This is an incredible pro-life victory."
We hope that this terrible case highlights to the British public the true humanity and preciousness of unborn children and exposes the discriminatory behaviour of this judge who wanted to force her pro-abortion agenda on this very vulnerable woman.
Yours in Life,
The Precious Life Communications Team