Catholic bishops urge Northern politicians to reject abortion law

The Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland have appealed to politicians not to pass controversial proposed laws that would broaden the scope for abortion.

A debate on the Northern Ireland Justice Bill is tabled for Wednesday, and will deal with the issue of “fatal foetal abnormality” as grounds for termination.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the church appealed to Catholics to lobby Assembly members and to express their concern.

“Legislators have a duty to acknowledge that an unborn child with a life-limiting condition, including anencephaly continues in every clinical and moral sense to be alive and worthy of continuing life-supporting intervention and care until natural death,” it said.

Anencephaly is a condition that stops normal brain development as well as that of bones in the skull.

The church said such an amendment could not be reconciled with a commitment to the right to life on which the wellbeing of society was based.

Parents, the statement continued, had a right to accurate information on life-limiting conditions when their children were diagnosed with them while in the womb.

“Such life-limiting conditions in pregnancy, including anencephaly, are sometimes inaccurately described as ‘fatal’ or ‘lethal’ abnormalities, implying that death has effectively occurred already or that a time of death can be predicted with certainty,” it said.

“This is totally misleading. The reality is that every case is different. Some seriously ill babies will die before birth and others will live for a few hours, others for weeks or months while some will live for significantly longer.

“This is an acknowledged medical fact. No doctor can tell for certain how long any baby in these circumstances will live.”

Children diagnosed with life-limiting conditions continue in every clinical sense to be alive and worth of continuing life-supporting intervention and care until natural death, the church believes.

“We ask members of the Assembly, in the interests of a truly compassionate and caring society, in which the most vulnerable are protected equally and with the same dignity as others, to reject the proposed abortion amendment and to work instead for the right of parents to peri-natal hospice services to support them in caring for their terminally ill child until natural death.

“It is a sign of the progress of our society that we have become more effective at caring with dignity for those with terminal illness as they journey towards natural death.”