I had not intended to write about abortion today.
There are many other issues exercising the minds of voters and candidates alike in these few weeks leading up to the assembly election.
However, no issue that will come before our new MLAs will have the same consequences for life and death as abortion.
Given the scale of the unbalanced commentary around the recent conviction of an unfortunate young woman for procuring an abortion using pills acquired on-line, especially in the columns of this newspaper, one feels impelled to offer some thoughts that while not conforming to the liberal group think maybe more in accord with a less vocal majority which transcends the traditional divide.
The question of whether to prosecute that young woman is actually a side issue compared to the substantive issue of abortion itself and that is not to minimise the seriousness of the suspended sentence the woman received nor the important responsibility of the Public Prosecution Service in this case.
It is necessary to take as calm and rational a look as possible at the fundamental issue here and that means saying things that are increasingly overlooked.
First and foremost, it has to be stated plainly that abortion, even in the hardest of cases, always means the deliberate killing of defenceless human life within the womb.
We must be grateful for the perspective of the woman’s housemate who told the BBC that she had no doubt that she had found “a baby” in the bin.
The advocates of so-called “pro-choice”, however well-intentioned, do not recognise the human rights of the unborn human.
Any legitimate medical intervention carried out with the intention of saving the mother, resulting in the unintended and unavoidable death of the unborn baby is not abortion and is thus morally permissible.
Human life is sacred from the moment of conception until natural death and the consideration of any legislation that provides for the deliberate taking of human life, in however limited circumstances and even for compassionate reasons, is the most serious matter that will ever exercise the conscience of law makers in Stormont.
That is why it was good to hear Colum Eastwood, the SDLP leader, in the leaders debate on UTV last week, state unambiguously: “First of all, we are a Pro-Life party. We maintain that position.”
Readers of this column will know that I have previously remarked on Mr Eastwood’s failure to explicitly reiterate that traditional plank of SDLP policy in two BBC interviews.
That policy had been promulgated as recently as last year in the party’s submission to a Department of Justice consultation which stated “…the SDLP is a Pro Life party with a long standing and consistent position on the protection of the life of the unborn child.”
It may not have been lost on Mr Eastwood that in the last Westminster election tactical voting by pro-life electors, most probably erstwhile SDLP voters, very likely tipped the scales in Fermanagh/South Tyrone resulting in the defeat of Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew and the election of Tom Elliott.
It should not be lost on Sinn Féin either, yet they support the repeal of the eighth amendment in the Republic’s constitution which acknowledges the equal right to life of both the unborn child and the mother.
Surely Sinn Féin knows that repeal of the eighth amendment runs the grave risk of the type of rampant abortion that we see in Britain, a country that sleepwalked into abortion on demand resulting in an estimated 8.2 million abortions – now totalling around 200,000 per year - since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.
In Britain abortion has become a form of birth control for many and in England and Wales in 2014 almost four in ten abortions, 37 per cent, were to women who already had one or more abortions.
By an accident of geography, we are very close to Britain and so it is argued that it is ridiculous that a woman with an unwanted pregnancy should have to travel there if she wishes to have an abortion.
This presupposes that liberalisation of abortion law here must be right and that so-called “reproductive rights” must trump the human rights of the unborn baby.
That unborn baby should never be considered a mere appendage or akin to a tumour to be surgically removed.
Abortion is the most extreme example of the “throwaway culture” spoken of by Pope Francis.
However messy our world is and however daunting the challenge in combating that culture we are all poorer if we forget that.
