{"id":212293,"date":"2019-10-13T14:49:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T19:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=212293"},"modified":"2019-10-12T22:55:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T03:55:45","slug":"westminster-abortion-guidelines-northern-ireland-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/westminster-abortion-guidelines-northern-ireland-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Westminster&#8217;s new abortion guidelines for Northern Ireland lack conscience protections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Northern Ireland\u2019s Secretary of State published Westminster\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/837166\/Guidance_for_the_medical_profession_in_Northern_Ireland.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abortion guidelines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the country which will have abortion forcibly legalized by October 22nd, unless the devolved Northern Irish government re-convenes before then.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The guidelines are a first step towards a broader legal abortion framework and are an interim measure, officially stating that no woman or doctor can be prosecuted for seeking or performing an abortion. The document will go into effect later this month, unless Northern Ireland\u2019s currently-absent government can reconcile the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/northern-ireland-talks-latest-power-sharing-deal-stormont-sinn-fein-dup-a8893096.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">falling-out from 2017<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and meet at Stormont before the October 21 deadline. Since Northern Ireland is still not subject to the UK\u2019s Abortion Act of 1967, Westminster has demanded a more thorough abortion law be passed no later than March 31, 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, women in Northern Ireland who wanted to obtain abortions traveled to England a short distance away. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-northern-ireland-49965339\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of the new support for abortion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will involve keeping this system in place, and compensating a woman\u2019s travel and accommodations, and even booking her travel and accommodations through a central booking agency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, if a provider in Northern Ireland wants to offer an abortion up until 28 weeks, they are urged to do so, though the document states the number expected would be \u201csmall\u201d and largely for \u201cfatal or serious fetal anomaly.\u201d But since the guidelines are few and not specific, this leaves women vulnerable as it has no guidance on, for example, clinic safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/stunning-high-court-strikes-northern-ireland-abortion\/\">In stunning move, high court strikes down Northern Ireland\u2019s pro-life laws<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notably absent from the guidelines are strong or specific directives for doctors, nurses, midwives, or other medical professionals who want nothing to do with abortion. In fact, the guidelines limit \u201cconscientious objection\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-northern-ireland-49965339\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only to the direct performing of or assisting with an abortion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and not to any other aspects of the procedure. The director of the Royal College of Midwives for Northern Ireland seemed to indicate this to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northernirelandnews\/2019\/10\/09\/news\/broad-welcome-for-abortion-guidance-but-criticism-too-1733912\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Irish News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, saying, &#8220;Those midwives with an objection to participating in abortions are due and deserve the same right to conscientiously object as their colleagues throughout the UK,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pro-life reaction has been vocal, not only because of the affront to the unborn, but also because of the potential risks to doctors, and to women without clear safety guidelines or conscience protections. \u201cFrom that date [October 22nd], children in the womb will have no statutory protection from abortion before they are capable of being born alive,\u201d said Liam Gibson of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spuc.org.uk\/latest-news\/latest-news\/barbarous-new-abortion-regime-unveiled-for-northern-ireland\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Society for the Protection of Unborn Children<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cThere will there be no investigation of the use of illegal abortion drugs purchased online. Nor will there be criminal sanctions to protect women against unscrupulous abortion doctors. The guidance offers scant reassurance to nurses and midwives with a conscientious objection that they will be able to avoid all complicity in abortion and still advance in their profession.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He concluded, \u201cWhen the proposed public consultation is launched the pro-life people of Northern Ireland must object in the strongest possible terms about what is being imposed on them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe reality is these guidelines spell out death for future unborn children and no protection for the doctors with a conscientious objection,\u201d said Bernadette Smyth, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishcatholic.com\/precious-life%e2%80%a8-says%e2%80%a8-westminster-%e2%80%a8abortion%e2%80%a8-guidelines-%e2%80%a8for%e2%80%a8-ni%e2%80%a8-spell%e2%80%a8-death\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">director of Precious Life<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cA gagging order has been placed within these guidelines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She added, \u201cWhat we should be saying now is that every single member of the Northern Ireland Assembly must read these guidelines, because this is the reality of what will be introduced into Northern Ireland if the Stormont government is not reconvened by October 21.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Ireland\u2019s Secretary of State published Westminster\u2019s abortion guidelines for the country which will have abortion forcibly legalized by October 22nd, unless the devolved Northern Irish government re-convenes before then.\u00a0 The guidelines are a first step towards a broader legal abortion framework and are an interim measure, officially stating that no woman or doctor can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":212396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Westminster&#039;s new abortion guidelines for Northern Ireland lack conscience protections<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Notably absent from the guidelines are strong or specific protections for doctors and other medical professionals who want nothing to do with abortion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/westminster-abortion-guidelines-northern-ireland-conscience\/\" 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