Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 4, 2018 / 07:45 am (CNA).- A new legal challenge has been mounted to Northern Ireland’s abortion law calling it incompatible with human rights because it does not allow abortion in cases where the unborn baby has a fatal abnormality. Pro-life advocates are arguing that abortion is not the compassionate choice, even in the most difficult circumstances.
“We can and will do so much better for women and their children in Northern Ireland than offering them the barbaric violence, distress and heartbreak of abortion,” said Bernadette Smyth, director of the Northern Ireland group pro-life Precious Life.
“Those working to overturn our legal protections for the unborn are attempting to make abortion appear to be a compassionate response to a woman facing a poor diagnosis for her unborn baby,” she said Oct. 2.
The plaintiff is seeking a high court decision against the current restrictions. Sarah Ewart travelled from Belfast to England for an abortion after a 20-week ultrasound scan led to a diagnosis of anencephaly for her baby, the Irish Times reports. The condition means the baby’s brain and skull do not develop and causes death either before birth or shortly afterwards.
“Pregnancy should be a happy time, whereas it has been a scary time for me, every scan I went to, I feared,” Ewart told the Press Association.
“Five years ago, I didn’t think I would still be fighting now, but we are going to go all the way, we are part of the U.K., the same laws should apply here,” she said.
Ewart now has two children and would like to have more, but said this was daunting given that doctors have told her she faces a risk of a similar pregnancy.
Smyth, however, thought the case for legal abortion was misleading.
“People are being fooled into thinking that abortion is a humane answer for a baby who is not going to survive for long after birth,” she said. “The heart-breaking reality however is that these late term abortions for babies with life-limiting conditions literally tear these babies apart in the womb, and so often leave women suffering with long-term grief, regret, anxiety and other mental health problems caused by the abortion and their knowledge that their baby’s death was a chosen one.”
Abortion is allowed in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk, or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
In June the U.K. Supreme Court threw out a previous challenge to Northern Ireland’s abortion law, saying the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which brought the case, did not have standing to do so. However, a majority of the judges said that the Northern Ireland abortion law framework is incompatible with human rights laws insofar as it bars abortion in cases of pregnancy by rape or incest or in cases of fetal abnormality. The U.K. government has so far not legislated any change.
Grainne Teggart, Northern Ireland campaigns manager for Amnesty International, said that taking the case to the Belfast high court should secure the necessary declaration that Northern Ireland’s abortion law violate human rights as they are enshrined in national legislation for the U.K.
Teggart said Ewart and other women should not have to go through the courts.
“The U.K. government has the power to change the law now and bring an end to the suffering of women here,” she said.
Precious Life said that Ewart “should have been offered real care and options, such as the loving support system of perinatal hospice care.”
“This service gives families the precious time they need with their sick babies, and gives these babies the dignity and love they deserve, no matter how short their lives may be.”
The pro-life group said that at 20 weeks into pregnancy, babies are close to surviving outside the womb. “Babies do not deserve to be killed so barbarically for any reason, or simply because they have a disability,” said the group.
“We must work to inform the people of Northern Ireland about the reality of abortion and what happens in the abortion procedure.”
Precious Life stressed the need to educate Northern Ireland about “what really happens in the abortion procedure.” The organization said that during a late-term abortion – between 15 and 24 weeks – the unborn baby’s body parts are “pulled apart piece by piece with a long-toothed clamp and removed.”
“The baby’s head is grasped and crushed in order to remove through from the mother’s cervix,” it added.
In an induced labor abortion, potassium chloride is injected into the baby to stop its heartbeat before delivery.
“If aborted alive, the baby will be left to die,” said the group. It cited National Health Service statistics estimating that in Britain, 66 babies a year are “left to die after late-term abortions gone wrong.”
“This is not healthcare. This is not compassion. This is cold-blooded killing,” Precious Life said. It urged the people of Northern Ireland to “continue to stand with us as a light in the darkness and a voice for unborn babies and their mothers who deserve all the help, love and support we can offer to encourage them to choose life.”
Northern Ireland’s abortion law could be taken up by either the Northern Ireland Assembly or the Parliament of the United Kingdom, but the Northern Ireland government is currently suspended due to disagreements between the two major governing parties.
The Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party in Northern Ireland and a key member of the U.K.’s governing coalition, is opposed to changing the law. Sinn Féin, another prominent party in Northern Ireland, backs a law that permits abortion.
In the neighboring Republic of Ireland, constitutional protections for the unborn were repealed following a May referendum. Lawmakers there have said they will work to pass taxpayer-funded abortion and implement legislation that will prevent Catholic-run hospitals from objecting to performing abortions.
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Is it too soon to say “the religion of peace”?
Readers, please see this eye-opening article by historian R. Ibrahim on the decisive battle in A.D. 626 that led to the fall of the then Christian Middle East, North Africa, etc.
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/08/20/2025/articles-of-the-day
it is 636 not 626; my eyesight is going and it is harder and harder for me to type
BTW the first name of the knife-wielding attacker at the Manchester synagogue is Jihad. I am not making this up. Media is avoiding mentioning his name. He is a perfectly integrated British citizen of Syrian origin. The wise British police are still trying to figure out his “motive”.. He will probably be declared to be psychotic. See
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/10/03/two-victims-of-manchester-synagogue-attack-may-have-been-accidentally-shot-by-police-force-says/
Blah, Blah, Blah. Neither the article nor the bishop’s statement mentions anything about the identity and background of the killer. Of course, the incident will not in any way shake the absolute commitment of the Church hierarchy’s to open borders. The same can also be said of Jews. The condemnations are an insult to all victims of crimes that the policies they advocate make possible.
I’m not sure I understand your comments Mr. Tony but I read on the BBC that the killer was a British citizen brought to the UK as a child. Perhaps that info. was not yet available at the time this article was written.
You understood my comments and Jihad Al-Shamie was not British in any meaningful sense of the word. Your word games are tiresome and less clever than you think.
Mr Tony, Britain has the right to define who their citizens are just as we do.
Oer the Daily Mail, the killer’s father is a medical professional who cheered on October 7th.
Sorry, Per. Not Oer.
Early morning typo.
🙂
When citizenship is granted en masse to anyone who can flop onto shore from a raft or get a plane ticket paid for by Soros or the UN, then it has been cheapened to the point of being worthless. The people of the West did not vote for bringing in hundreds of millions of culturally incompatible foreigners from every corner of the globe. This was imposed on us by a transnational elite. he Moors who had dominated Spain for centuries no doubt thought they were entitled to stay. They found out otherwise. Something similar is going to have to take place again in Europe, North America and Australia.
The government of the UK itself is responsible for the violence. The government has become the prime example of using its office against those who PEACEFULLY protest and express their ideas and views. The British government better get its act together before it’s too late. The British people better wake up, have a conversion of heart and return to acknowledging Christ as their Savior. A godless people will not be able to resist the ravages of barbaric Islam.
For those of us who live in the United States, we must be concerned about KEEPING OUR RIGHT OF PEACEFUL PROTEST TO EXPRESS OUR IDEAS AND VIEWS.
Yes, and the greatest threat comes from the progressive ideology you support. How ironic 🙄.
Dear Deacon, your posting appears to blame the British government for the violent attack on the Manchester synagogue.
As no sane adult, especially a Christian, could think, much less say that, perhaps you would clarify what you were saying?
Thank you.
Kieran, Go review the news articles about the current Labour government over the past year. No sane person could read about the actions of the British government in this period and not hold them culpable of instigating violence. I will rest my case.
Perhaps, deacon, more of your concern should be about our present government.
Thank you Deacon, for your interesting views on the recent violence against Jews in Manchester.
I regret wasting my time asking for them.
This extremist behavior is simply not acceptable in Manchester, England or anywhere else in the world. The Jewish community of England or other parts of the world must not be blamed or held hostage for the ravages of war in the Middle East. The Jewish community has a God given right to exist and live in peace. Let’s not repeat the Holocaust once again!
We have friends in the UK who are nominal Christians. Their daughter married a Jew and “converted” to his faith in order for their two sons to be considered Jewish. Recenly, our friends told us that their daughter had cautioned her sons to “never mention outside the house to anyone that they were Jewish.” Let that sink in. Visiond of Kristalnach!
The Babylon Bee had a satire article about British Jews arrested for inciting violence by being too obviously Jewish.
The situation is even worse in France today.
Here we go again. This happens in the USA also. No one seems to want to provide security
in advance against the threat – any threat. Study the options. Consider using sensible police our usher protection.