Marie Stopes in Belfast

The abortion issue is uniting many Protestants and Roman Catholics while creating division within the flocks: the ‘wise’ keeping their heads down, saying nothing until they are a mile out of town. Writing from out of town I am wondering if the silver lining in the story of Marie Stopes setting up shop here in Belfast is that it will bring focus on clarifying what our local legislation says on the matter.

 As in all issues of dispute and conflict there is usually legitimacy in the fundamental views of both factions. The views of the pro-life/anti-abortion lobbyists are of course valid when they explain that following conception a life force is created and any deliberate termination of that life force in the womb amounts to a killing: there are very few of us today who would not have seriously resented anyone who had attempted to interfere with our right to the magic of life when we were still in the womb. The enthusiasm of the pro-lifers is based on their deeply held Christian convictions, but I have two questions. Firstly, is there not something that goes against the essence of Christianity in always seeking to forbid the right of choice to a woman in the dilemma of having a pregnancy, that may result in harm to her own life or that of the new-born child? Secondly (to Unionist pro-lifers) is there not something fundamentally un-British about people here not being afforded the same rights and freedoms of choice as people in the rest of the UK? Only asking.