Dreaming of Simplicity

What can I say, pretty much does what it says on the tin. There is an guest post at Harry's Place calling for support to extend abortion rights to Northern Ireland. NI is currently a member of the league of draconian states with abortion only allowed where the mothers life or permanent health is deemed to be at risk.

A cross party group of MP's are launching a bid to give NI women the same rights as women in the rest of the UK. Please do support them. The move is lead by the lovely Dianne Abbott (she's the Labour MP who sits on This Week with Michael Portillo for the Tories on BBC1) who said "When it comes to abortion rights, Northern Ireland women are effectively second class citizens: they don't have the same rights as women in England and Wales and Scotland and they even have fewer rights than women in the Republic of Ireland".

Please do email Mrs Abbott with a message of support if you can, and, as it will be a free vote, it is vitally important that you email your own MP to ask for their support for this bill. Unfortunately, my MP appears to be a hardcore religious freak who has opposed all civil rights legislation in the past including the HFE bill.

The NI parties, all of which oppose the extension, claim that they oppose the bill because the people of NI are against it. In response, here is a snippet of a speech made by the Canadian PM on the introduction of the civil marriage act (gay marriage) "the rights of minorities [must] not [be] subjected--never [be] subjected--to the will of the majority. The rights of [those] who belong to a minority group must always be protected by virtue of their status as citizens, regardless of their numbers, and these rights must never be left vulnerable to the impulses of the majority."

If every person in NI is against abortion the fact will still remain that it is a basic right that should be granted to everyone. MP's have a responsibility to protect citizens rights, not to rule by majority opinion.