Extend the 67 Abortion Act - don't let local political parties off the hook

national | rights, freedoms and repression | feature

Friday October 24, 2008 20:59

by Jason Brannigan - Organise!

organiseireland at yahoo dot ie

Organise! Pickets Local Political Parties

Organise! at the UUP Office

The Alliance for Choice in Northern Ireland is heading up a campaign for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. On Wednesday 22nd there will be a vote on an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in Westminster to extend the Act to NI - 41 years after its introduction in the rest of the UK.

Organise!, political activists, and pro-choice campaigners will be staging a series of protests in the next week in the run up to the Westminster vote on the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to NI.

This Saturday at 2pm at Belfast City Hall the campaign is organising a symbolic '40 women' protest. 40 women will wear "it could be me t-shirts", representing the 40 women who leave Northern Ireland each week to have an abortion. Organise! and other anarchists have pledged their support for the demonstration and a call has been made for as many people as possible to attend the protest.

Additionally, Organise! are also targeting local political parties in the run up to the vote on the 22nd. In a press statement, Organise! said:

"The four main political parties at the Stormont Assembly have made a virtue of how they are united in opposition to a woman's right to choose. Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party have all adopted an anti-woman, anti-choice position that increases hardship and puts the lives of women, particularly working class women, at risk ... While the campaign is urging everyone to contact MPs at Westminster to ask them to support this amendment we cannot let local political parties off the hook."

Organise! have already picketed the headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party on the Ravenhill Road in East Belfast. In addition we have organised pickets as follows:

SDLP, 121 Ormeau Road, Belfast at 1pm on Monday 20th of October;
DUP, 91 Dunvale Avenue, Belfast at 1pm on Tuesday 21st of October;
and the Sinn Fein Press Office, 53 Falls Road at 1.00pm on Wednesday 22nd of October.

For more information email: organiseireland@yahoo.ie