The right to family life includes the right to kill the unborn
by Andrew Tettenborn, The Conservative Woman:
The Supreme Court yesterday disclaimed any intention to intervene in the controversy over Northern Ireland’s abortion law, on the basis that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission which had challenged it had no legal standing to do so. Then, with a similar degree of sincerity to the Bard’s Mark Antony, it proceeded to do exactly what it had said it would not. Despite the proceedings being improperly brought, it intervened, and did so big-time, making it clear that technicalities about its power to act did not matter, and that it expected to have its views put into effect by the politicians as soon as possible.
By way of background, Northern Ireland law has never included the Abortion Act 1967 applicable elsewhere in the UK. It essentially limits any abortion, for any reason, to cases where there is a serious threat to the mother’s life or health. This was not good enough, said a majority of their Lordships. In cases of pregnancy through rape or incest, and also where there was a fatal foetal abnormality, there was a human right to termination arising under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protecting private and family life (no comment). Two Justices went further, and said – seriously – that refusal of abortion amounted to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment. The only comfort for pro-life supporters was that a majority of the Court rejected a right to abortion in cases of non-fatal abnormality: quite rightly, this was regarded as sitting ill with the protection of the rights of the disabled outside the womb.
This decision, welcomed with open arms by the human rights establishment, tells us a great deal about politics, human rights and the judicial process. It does not make for pleasant reading.
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