The abortion guidelines issued by the Department of Health (DHSSPS) are flawed and must be scrapped.

• The guidelines are an attempt to legalise abortion in Northern Ireland ‘through the back door’. The Department of Health claim their guidelines will not change the law relating to abortion in Northern Ireland. However, these guidelines are an attempt to change the interpretation of the law. These guidelines are effectively the first steps to legalising abortion-on demand-right up to birth.



• The guidelines are skewed in favour of performing, rather that NOT performing, abortions. The Department of Health claim the aim of their guidelines is to clarify when abortion is legal in Northern Ireland. But the law in Northern Ireland is very clear. Killing an unborn child is illegal. The only exception is when the child dies as a unintentional result of a doctor's treatment to save a pregnant woman's life. These guidelines grossly exaggerate this exception of "saving the mother's life" - for example - implying abortion is legal on the grounds of mental health.
  
  NOTE: Abortion can be categorized as ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ — but the guidelines make no reference to the clear fundamental difference between them -
  
  "DIRECT" ABORTION is when a doctor commits the act with the specific and deliberate intent to kill the child. No attempt is made to save the life of the child.
  "INDIRECT ABORTION" is when a doctor treats a pregnant woman for a life-threatening medical condition and her child dies as an unintentional side effect. Every attempt is made to save the life of the child.
  
  There are NO MEDICAL CIRCUMSTANCES when a mother's life can only be saved by directly killing her unborn child.
     Doctors in Northern Ireland are not prevented from providing treatment to pregnant women which may result in an ‘indirect abortion’, e.g. delivering a child early in a case of pre-eclampsia but the child tragically dies.



• The Department of Health say they are required to issue guidance on termination of pregnancy following a Judicial Review. However, no reference is made in the guidelines to Lord Justice NICHOLSON's recommendation that - "This judgment is written in the hope that the department will seek to reduce the number of women and girls going away to seek an abortion and to encourage those seeking an abortion in Northern Ireland to make a different choice."



• These guidelines make no reference to the right to life of unborn children. The Department of Health do not mention the word "baby" or "unborn child" anywhere in the guidelines. When dealing with a pregnant woman, the Department of Health must acknowledge her unborn baby as the second patient.

!!! TAKE ACTION !!!

The Department of Health's Abortion Guidelines are full of flaws, flawed ideas and misinterpretations of the law, based on a flawed knowledge of medicine.

All pro-life people in Northern Ireland must write to their Assembly Members and demand that these guidelines are scrapped and that the Department of Health must acknowledge the legal protection that unborn babies have in Northern Ireland.

Using some of the points listed above, tell your Assembly Members - briefly and simply in your own words -that the Guidelines are flawed and must be scrapped.

There are six Assembly Members for each constituency. You can send your letter to one of them but ideally, sending your letter to all six members would be more effective.

If you don’t know the Assembly Members for your area, please click here… Constituency Map

Post your letter(s) to :

                    {your Assembly Member’s Name}
                    Parliament Buildings
                    Belfast
                    BT4 3XX

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