Statement by TUV Bannside councillor Timothy Gaston:
“We have learned to expect little from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission but their decision to launch legal action over the alleged failure to commission and fund the provision of abortion in Northern Ireland is a new low. It is shameful that an organisation which proudly markets itself as “protecting and promoting the human rights of everyone in Northern Ireland” should use public money in an action which would, if successful, result in a direct threat to the most basic and fundamental human right of the most vulnerable – the right to life of the unborn.
“Our doctors and nurses are valiantly combating the threat of the virus and battle to keep people alive in our hospitals. They have won the admiration of everyone in our Province in doing so and this weekend Trusts were openly saying that they were at breaking point. Yet the NIHRC has chosen this moment to go to court to seek to use NHS resources in the ending of human lives.
“There is already significant public unease about how the Department of Health is going about the issue of abortion. At the weekend we learned that the Northern Trust resumed providing abortions again. Questions put to the Health Minister by my party leader on the issue are three months overdue including how the figures on abortions performed this year compare with previous years. A body which is supposed to concern itself with the protection of human rights would be better served pushing for greater clarity around the unborn lives which have already been lost due to legislation which was imposed on Northern Ireland. Let’s not forget that the NIO consultation on abortion resulted in over 21,200 responses of which some 79% registering their general opposition to any abortion provision beyond that which was previously permitted.
“The voices of the unborn and the voices of the Northern Ireland public have been ignored for too long when it comes to this matter.”