On 16th January 2007, the Department of Health issued draft Guidelines on performing abortions in Northern Ireland. On 22nd October 2007, the Guidelines were scrapped when the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a motion opposing them. Here’s how Precious Life made it happen…

When the Department of Health issued their draft abortion Guidelines there was to be no public consultation as they were issued only to “health professionals and interested organisations.”

Precious Life could not let this threat to our unborn children go unchallenged.

We launched the “Not in My Name” Campaign to make the public aware of the Department’s deadly plans. We started distributing hundreds of thousands of our leaflets across Northern Ireland warning of the dangers in the Guidelines, together with a Submission Form for the public to sign asking the Department of Health to give protection to our unborn children.

By February, our campaign was making quite an impact. The [then] Health Minister Paul Goggins announced in Westminster that because of the level of correspondence and interest, the deadline for submissions (originally 16th March) was extended to 20th April. This answer to prayer gave us another 4 weeks to collect thousands more signatures.

At the start of March we unveiled our Campaign Billboard at Stormont and at the Guildhall in Derry. It was the week before the Assembly Election and candidates from the SDLP and DUP attended the unveiling. We were greatly encouraged by this cross-party support for our Campaign. Our Mobile Billboard travelled all over Northern Ireland.

On 18th April, we held a meeting with the Department of Health to outline our objections. Our legal advisor — Johanna Higgins — started the meeting by telling the Department that their guidelines had to be scrapped immediately because they contained a very serious legal error. She challenged the Department as to why the guidelines had omitted part of the statute law [Section 25 (2) of the Criminal Justice Act (NI) 1945] which gives protection to unborn babies. She warned them that ‘Child Destruction’ is a very serious crime which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

We also proposed that the whole process be suspended until the new Assembly was in place. But the Department dismissed our suggestion and arrogantly said the matter had nothing to do with the Assembly.

We couldn’t let the Department get away with such arrogance. We immediately organised a meeting with Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) and asked him to make a political intervention. This secured a decision by Paul Goggins, that the implementation of the draft Guidelines would be postponed until after the new devolved government had been established.

The closing date came for the consultation period. We held a Prayer Rally at Stormont. People from across Northern Ireland marched up to Parliament Buildings carrying a 10ft banner stating “The people of Northern Ireland say… ABORTION? - NOT IN MY NAME”. Our mobile billboard was driven around Belfast city centre all day. We made a presentation to the Department of Health of 50,000 submissions signed by the Northern Ireland public. We also presented our own Legal Submission to the Department.

The new devolved government was restored at Stormont on 8th May. Precious Life began a series of meetings with Assembly Members and MPs to explain how the Guidelines would effectively legalise abortion in Northern Ireland ‘through the back door’.

In addition to acting as Precious Life's legal advisor at the meetings, Johanna also started working on a document to inform Assembly Members of the dangers in the guidelines. Johanna is a truly gifted barrister with a deep love for the unborn child . Over the summer she spent many long nights writing and preparing her Briefing Paper - an indepth analysis of serious flaws and legal errors contained in the guidelines.

As a result of our meetings with Assembly Members, Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) and Iris Robinson (DUP) agreed to table a motion in the Assembly opposing the Guidelines. It was the beginning of September when we launched Phase 2 of the “NOT IN MY NAME” Campaign - a Petition Campaign to our Assembly members. We blanketed the whole of Northern Ireland with thousands of postcards for the public to sign and send to their Assembly Members urging them to support the motion. We also advertised the petition in Northern Ireland’s main daily newspapers. Never before had there been such a massive pro-life campaign in Northern Ireland.

Precious Life published and printed Johanna's Briefing Paper and sent it to all the members of the Assembly.

Then that momentous day came - 22nd October. On the morning of the debate, we presented to the Assembly over 120,000 petitions against abortion signed by the Northern Ireland public.

Throughout the debate there were many powerful speeches defending the right to life of our unborn children. Iris Robinson (DUP) opened the debate with congratulations for Precious Life’s “Not In My Name” Campaign and pointed out that 120,000 petitions in support of the motion had been received. Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) also made reference to the thousands of petitions we had collected as proof of the overwhelming public opposition to the Guidelines. Pat Ramsey (SDLP) called on the Health Minister to ensure that Precious Life would be considered in any future consultation process.
 
The Health Minister tried to convince MLAs that the guidelines weren’t about changing the law in Northern Ireland or making abortion more widely available. But it was too late for that because many of the MLA’s were already quoting indisputable legal facts from the Briefing Paper they had received from Precious Life.

That afternoon all our hard work and prayers were rewarded when the motion was passed with an overwhelming majority. The guidelines were scrapped and the Assembly sent out the clear message that the people of Northern Ireland demand full protection for our unborn babies from abortion.

Messages of Congratulations