American friends of Northern Ireland, we need your help.
This week, the British Parliament voted to radically alter the country’s abortion laws. Effective Oct. 22, Northern Ireland will go from being the most restrictive jurisdiction in the United Kingdom to having one of the most liberal abortion regimes in all of Europe — all over the broad opposition of the people of Northern Ireland and the lawmakers elected to represent them at Westminster.
Northern Ireland has guarded its abortion laws jealously. We view the protection of unborn life as life-affirming and progressive. Since 1967, when Great Britain (that is, England, Scotland and Wales) enacted an abortion-on-demand regime, some 9 million pregnancies have been terminated. In Northern Ireland, by contrast, we only permit abortion when the mother’s life is in danger or when continuing a pregnancy poses a serious and permanent threat to her health.
The result: An estimated 100,000 people were alive in Northern Ireland as of 2017 who wouldn’t be, had we embraced the 1967 law. Northern Ireland’s total population is only 1.8 million, so this is a significant figure, one we are proud of. And we were under the impression that the UK constitutional structure would allow us to keep our abortion laws.
Responsibility for abortion policy in Northern Ireland lies, not with the Parliament at Westminster, but with the Northern Ireland Assembly. This is a bedrock principle of “devolved” governance, one of the achievements of the peace process after the Northern Ireland Troubles. The last time the Assembly weighed in on abortion, it voted by a clear majority not to change our existing laws.
The problem: The Assembly hasn’t sat for more than two years, owing to an ongoing internal political crisis. The British Parliament took advantage of this crisis to impose a liberal abortion regime on Northern Ireland — without any consultation or warning.
Thus, 332 members of Parliament from England, Scotland and Wales have changed a law touching on the most fundamental questions of life, death and morality — all against the clear will of the people of Northern Ireland. Every single member of Parliament representing a Northern Irish constituency voted against the law, as did every Northern Ireland member of the House of Lords, me included. Adding insult to injury, they did it while people in Northern Ireland were on a national holiday.
The imposition of abortion on Northern Ireland is all too reminiscent of old school British imperialism, revealing a stark democratic deficit.
In 1962, members of Parliament from other parts of the United Kingdom voted flood a valley and thus destroy the village of Tryweryn in Wales, to create a dam. They did so against the opposition of all but one Welsh member of Parliament. Modern Welsh nationalism grew out of anger over what happened to Tryweryn.
The difference is that, while the physical community of Tryweryn was lost, its people weren’t. In the case of this vote, the Westminster Parliament has imposed abortion and placed in jeopardy the future of many children who would otherwise be born and live safely here in Northern Ireland; we are left to grieve.
The people of the United States, through their civic and diplomatic support, contributed to the creation of our devolved Northern Ireland Assembly in the late 1990s. We need that Assembly back functioning, and if Assembly negotiations succeed, we can forestall the new law.
But meanwhile, we need our government in London to respect the devolution settlement that allows the people of Northern Ireland to decide life and death matters for themselves. Let’s hope American lawmakers of both parties, and Irish-Americans especially, will speak up. International pressure, especially from our American friends, remains indispensable to securing Northern Ireland’s rights.
Baroness Nuala O’Loan is a member of the House of Lords.