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Health minister should end public funding of abortion advocates, says pro-life group SPUC |
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Belfast, 6 October 2010: Pro-life campaigners in Northern Ireland are urging the health minister to end the public funding of the Northern Ireland Family Planning Association (NI FPA). The call comes on the eve of a conference organised by the FPA and which is aimed at training doctors in the medical and surgical techniques of abortion. Speaking about the conference in the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa in Co. Down, later this week, Liam Gibson, Northern Ireland development officer for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said: “This conference is not merely part of the FPA’s campaign to overturn legal restrictions on abortion in Northern Ireland, it is principally intended to instruct doctors here in the actual procedures used to kill children before they are born. Many of the speakers are themselves experienced abortionists working for Marie Stopes International or the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. “It is not the job of the FPA to tell doctors in Northern Ireland how to perform abortions. The Northern Ireland health department is presently drawing-up guidance for doctors on abortion law and clinical practice here. It is outrageous that abortion providers, such as the FPA, should disregard the consultation process by promoting abortion practices which are incompatible with the law in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Gibson. “The FPA receives a substantial amount of funding from the Northern Ireland health budget. It is therefore, reasonable to ask if public money should be used to support a group that organises an event of this kind. In light of the difficult financial climate we face in Northern Ireland, it is time the funding of the FPA was re-examined. We are calling on Minister of Health to end the funding of a group that has shown nothing but contempt for the law,” said Mr Gibson. The First All-Ireland Conference on Abortion and Clinical Practice organised by FPA will take place Friday 8 October 2010 at the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa, Newcastle, County Down BT33 0AH. Notes for editors: 1) For figures relating to suicide after abortion, see Gissler M, Hemminki E, Lonnqvist J. Suicides after pregnancy in Finland: 1987-1994: register linkage study. British Medical Journal 1996; 313: 1431-4. 2) Numerous studies have linked abortion with preterm delivery (less than 37 weeks) in subsequent pregnancies. The largest European study of this subject showed an even greater risk of early preterm birth (less than 32 weeks). Martius JA, Steck T, Oehler MK, Wulf K-H. Risk factors associated with preterm (<37+0 weeks) and early preterm (<32+0 weeks): univariate and multi-variate analysis of 106,345 singleton births from 1994 statewide perinatal survey of Bavaria. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 1998;80:183-189 3) Early preterm infants constitute the majority of those children born with serious physical and mental disabilities, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, lung infections, and cerebral palsy. Escobar GJ, Littenberg B, Petitti DB. Outcome among surviving very low birthweight infants; a meta-analysis. Arch Dis Child 1991;66:204-211. To receive this news regularly, visit http://www.spuc.org.uk/em-signup. The reliability of the news herein is dependent on that of the cited sources, which are paraphrased rather than quoted. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. © Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, 2010 |
Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.