The National Assembly, though divided into nine parties by religion and policy, managed to coalesce into a decisive majority to defeat two amendments to the law on abortion, one which would have allowed it in the case of children with fatal abnormalities (by 59 votes to 40) and the other whenever the pregnancy resulted from rape (by 64-30).

Liam Gibson, Northern Ireland spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, commented, "Although they were presented as allowing abortion only for a limited number of so-called hard cases, in reality they were an attack on some of the most vulnerable of children and would have led to widespread abortion."

SPUC lobbied their own members and the legislators themselves both personally and with emails explaining that both amendments were designed to maximize sympathy for pregnant women in trying circumstances, but could be easily broadened into abortion on demand. On paper the current law (enacted 155 years ago) treats abortion as homicide, but judicial rulings have softened it slightly to allow them when a woman's life is threatened.

SPUC and other pro-life organizations argued that the proposed exception for an unborn child with fatal abnormalities was too loose because that assessment would be left up to two doctors acting "in good faith." But Gibson told LifeSiteNews there were doctors in Northern Ireland who would make that assessment based on sympathy for the mother. "There is no way to determine good faith," he said.

As for abortion in cases of rape, this offered an even bigger possibility of abuse, Gibson explained. "Whether there has been a rape would be decided by doctors who have no training in determining legal questions." Contrary to popular belief, most rapes are not violent and leave no physical evidence for a clinician, he argued. "They depend on whether there was consent, which is a matter for the courts to decide." So any woman could secure an abortion by claiming rape under the amendment, which even supporters of abortion on demand say would lead to false...

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