AQW 8583/16-21
Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast
Tabled Date: 06/12/2016
Answered On Date: 14/12/2016
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Justice for her assessment of the signatures on the public petition (i) Campaign for Abortion Law Reform in Northern Ireland introduced to the Assembly on 22 November 2016; and (ii) Promotion of the Protection of Unborn Children in Northern Ireland introduced on 28 November 2016.
Answer:
On 23 November I received from the Speaker a petition collected by Amnesty International UK that had been presented, by Clare Bailey, to the Assembly on 22 November. The petition consisted of 45,000 electronic signatures. I understand from Amnesty that the petition was collected online via the Amnesty International UK website, between January and October 2016, and was signed by people from across the UK, including from Northern Ireland. On 28 November I received from the Speaker material in relation to a petition collected by Precious Life that had been presented, by Jim Wells, to the Assembly on 28 November. In his speech to the Assembly Mr Wells described it as ‘the largest petition ever received by the Northern Ireland Assembly. It has 300,000 signatures, not 45,000, calling for the protection of the unborn child in Northern Ireland. It has been signed by Northern Ireland residents who have given their address so that where they live can be verified. Therefore, I believe this petition is indeed authentic.’ What I received on 28 November consisted of 47 boxes containing multiple petitions dating from 2001/02 to 2014. In all there were nine separate campaigns identified by my officials, relating to subjects such as, in 2001/02, ensuring that the human rights of unborn children are protected in proposals from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission on a new Bill of Rights; plans by a ‘group of pro-abortion MPS’ to change the law on abortion in Northern Ireland in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, due for debate in the House of Commons in February/March 2008; and opposition, in 2012, to Marie Stopes International opening a clinic in Northern Ireland. There was no petition relating to termination of pregnancy for fatal fetal abnormality and no petition dated after September 2014. There were also addresses identified in the material provided which were not in Northern Ireland.
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