Precious Life --Press Release--
LUMIERE CHARITY HAS RECEIVED REPORT FROM PRECIOUS LIFE -
--PRESS RELEASE--
" ‘THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION IS TRYING TO ALLOW ABORTION BY THE BACK DOOR’
In response to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s announcement on 10th
December 2014 that it is to take the Department of Justice to the High
Court to demand the legalisation of abortion, Bernadette Smyth, the
Director of Precious Life, sought legal advice and made clear Precious
Life’s plan to fight this challenge through the courts to ensure that
the rights of the unborn child will be protected in law, policy and
practice in Northern Ireland.
Today,
Precious Life, the leading pro-life group in Northern Ireland, appeared
in court regarding an application for leave to be involved as third
party interveners in this landmark case. Today the judge instructed that
Precious Life apply in writing within two weeks. The judge will then
consider whether Precious Life can make any further contribution to the
case. The judge has granted leave for the judicial review. The hearing
will be in June.
The right to life of all members of the human family, regardless of health, abilities, circumstances of their conception or any other distinction,
is enshrined in internationally agreed declarations, conventions, and
covenants such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, the
principles of which are specifically endorsed in the European Convention
on Human Rights 1950, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child 1959, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights 1976.
However,
the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) will not seek to
protect the right to life of unborn children under threat of legalised
abortion. Rather, according to the NIHRC, the law in Northern Ireland,
which ensures that every human being, born and unborn, has a right to
life, a right not to be intentionally killed, is in violation of human
rights. The NIHRC has declared that the law in Northern Ireland is in
violation of the European Convention on Human Rights: specifically the
prohibition of torture and degrading treatment (Article 3), the right to
privacy (Article 8), and the prohibition of discrimination (Article
14).
Precious Life believes the NIHRC’s claims are unfounded:
Prohibition of torture and degrading treatment
Torture
is the direct and intentional killing of the most defenceless and
vulnerable human being, the unborn child. To invade and tear the unborn
child from the sanctuary of his or her mother’s womb is torture. Degrading treatment
is to deceive a desperate and vulnerable woman into believing that her
unborn child is nothing but a blood clot, a clump of cells, or as
Malachi O’Doherty despicably declared on the BBC Stephen Nolan Show
today, ‘goo’. To lay a desperate and vulnerable woman on an operating
table, to drug her, and to tear her baby from her womb and discard into a
basin is degrading treatment.
Right to privacy
The right to privacy can never permit the killing of another human being. A pregnant woman’s ‘right to control over her own body’ cannot impose a burden on her unborn child to die.
Prohibition of discrimination
The
law in Northern Ireland, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and
the Criminal Justice Act (NI) 1945, which ensures that our unborn
children are protected from abortion, is consistent with the original
meaning of European Convention on Human Rights 1950. In a case brought
before the European Court of Human Rights, Vo v France
[2005], the Court stated that abortion is a matter for national
legislation. Therefore it cannot be discriminatory that the Abortion Act
1967 does not apply in Northern Ireland.
Speaking
outside the court today, Bernadette Smyth declared, ‘contrary to what
the NIHRC would like to believe, not one international human rights
instrument recognises a right to abortion. It is very hypocritical of
our Human Rights Commission to want to deny unborn children, the most
defenceless and vulnerable human beings, of their right to life.’
She continued, ‘this move of the NIHRC is undemocratic. The NIHRC is trying to allow abortion by the back door.’
Precious
Life will use all democratic means to fight this legal challenge.
Precious Life also calls on the Northern Ireland Assembly to vigorously
oppose any change in legislation that would destroy Northern Ireland’s
unborn children. "
See link
Image kind courtesy of Precious Life
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