Precious Life have described as “another victory for unborn children” the failure of a legal bid by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to stop the complete withdrawal of guidelines on abortion. [See: BBC News - Abortion guidance must be redrawn]

Last month, the High Court ruled the guidelines did not properly cover counselling and conscientious objection issues. Today (Monday 14 December) lawyers for the Department of Health argued that only the sections on these two issues should be reconsidered. However, Lord Justice Girvan said the entire guidelines were misleading.

This is another victory for our unborn children. We welcome Lord Justice Girvan’s firm statement that he would not vary his order requiring the guidelines to be withdrawn.

We have been vindicated once again. Since these guidelines were published, Precious Life has been campaigning for their complete withdrawal. They were flawed both medically and legally, and would have effectively legalised abortion in Northern Ireland ‘through the back door’.

In last month’s ruling, Lord Justice Girvan criticised two sections of the guidelines. However, these sections overlap with many other parts of the guidelines. It was ludicrous for the Department to think they could only change these two sections and leave the rest of guidelines unaffected.

Our analysis that the entire guidelines had to be withdrawn was backed up by Lord Justice Girvan’s statement today. He said the two sections he had criticised were significant portions of the guidelines and the effect of the errors made the guidelines as a whole misleading.”

Precious Life will continue to campaign vigorously to ensure there is a new consultation process on guidelines with input from pro-life medical and legal experts. Any future guidance issued by Department of Health must clearly outline the illegality of abortion, and fully acknowledge the right to life of our unborn children and their protection in law.

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