Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is another dark chapter in our history. The attempts by the majority of the parties in the North, including Sinn Féin and the SDLP - shamefully so in the case of the latter given its particular stance for life when others were not so solid - but excluding the DUP alone, to deny the ethical seriousness of this issue has been tragic. It points to terrible political and social irresponsibility and destructiveness. Instead of engaging in a sensitive and constructive manner, these parties went the route of ridicule and political point-scoring. At no point was there even a minimal attempt to respond to the gravity of the legislation and to what it entails, namely, the ending of a life of an unborn child, for any reason up to the point of viability and perhaps beyond. Thanks to a political vacuum that seems to have been happily embraced insofar as it eased the passage of this inhumane Act, even while people were decrying the disrespect for minorities in the context of Brexit and consent arrangements and so on, we now have a situation where unborn children in the North may be subjected to acts of intolerable cruelty in the name of progressive politics.It is not just that there is something deeply unfair about abortion, though there is. It is about the lengths to which people in this Parliament and others go to deny the humanity of the child, including denying any discussion about pain relief during late-term abortions, which are now permitted. This points to a darkness at the heart of our society and a darkening of the understanding of many people, including parliamentarians.

The measures that have been introduced also include a compulsory component stipulating that so-called reproductive rights, including how to access abortion, must become part of Northern Ireland's school curriculum for adolescents. Not only has one of the most liberal and extreme abortion regimes in Europe been foisted on the North, through British legislation which Sinn Féin supported, but the promotion of its ideological foundation is being forced onto schools. If left unchallenged, this legislation will make it very difficult for schools to maintain an ethos that regards abortion as a tragedy and an injustice which erodes fundamental respect for human dignity, and will also make it harder for those schools to encourage positive alternatives to abortion. This is a long way from what some early feminists, who were staunchly pro-life, would have wanted. This is not about men versus women. Countless women, many of whom are very proud to call themselves feminists, are deeply disturbed by the direction our law has now taken.