Stalford – “NI Assembly sends awful message to the disabled”

Mr Stalford said,

“The Bill would have made it illegal to abort a baby right up to birth (40+ weeks) for disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, club foot or cleft lip. That MLAs rejected this, is deeply worrying and sends an awful message about the value the NI Assembly places on the life of an unborn disabled child.

The current law, foisted on us by Westminster, means a baby with no disability can be aborted for any reason up to 24 weeks but a baby with a disability can be aborted right up to 40 weeks. We sought to moderately amend the law.

This is not the end of the road. We are a pro-life party. Every life must be valued. We will continue to advocate for the policies which encourage the preservation of life both in the NI Assembly and the NI Executive.

To those MLAs who previously supported and then chose to abstain or vote against, that will be a matter they will have to explain to their electorate.”