Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020
Debate between Lord McNicol of West Kilbride and Baroness Deech
Baroness Deech (CB) [V]
My Lords, the Northern Ireland Act does not limit Parliament to the recommendations of CEDAW; it is broader. This is an exercise of parliamentary sovereignty.
Secondly, it has been held in law that the unborn do not have rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. However, most of all, I draw attention to something shameful. There is respect for the foetus, I hear from our Northern Ireland colleagues. Why, then, until very recently, when the mother had her perhaps unwanted baby out of wedlock, were they put in mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries, subject to arbitrary detention and forced adoption? There is a four-year, ongoing interdepartmental working group looking into the shameful treatment of mothers and babies in Northern Ireland, which the UN Committee Against Torture recommended. I do not understand this respect for the foetus if it does not carry over to the born baby and the mother, so I support the regulations.
