Precious Life held a two day Prayer Vigil outside the High Court in Belfast on 27 and 28th October in support of a legal challenge to Department of Health guidelines on abortion in Northern Ireland. The court case was brought by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) to seek a High Court declaration that the guidelines do not properly set out the law; are misleading and legally inaccurate.

During the first day of the legal battle, the pro-life barrister Mr James Dingemans QC argued that the guidelines failed to deal with the rights of the unborn child and provided inadequate advice for conscientious objectors within the medical profession.

The Department of Health's attitude towards the unborn child was revealed when their legal representative tried to argue the “foetus” had no rights

However, Mr Dingemans said that, despite the health department's claims, unborn children in Northern Ireland had rights which are safeguarded in both the Offences Against the Person Act and the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Act.

Mr Dingemans outlined to Lord Justice Girvan why the government's guidance was inadequate and needed to be withdrawn and re-examined so that it dealt more adequately with the issues. He drew attention to the issue of informed consent. He also highlighted the lack of information in the guidance which doctors could pass on to their patients about the risks and other potential consequences of abortion, in particular the mental health impact.

Mr Dingemans said that women were entitled to treatment which protected their lives, but it was wholly misleading for the health department to portray the law as allowing so-called termination of pregnancy services. He also pointed out that media commentators had mistakenly concluded that the government's guidance suggested that abortion had been liberalized in Northern Ireland.

He said that the right to non-participation in abortion was not addressed by the health department's document in the area of questionable cases where two doctors disagreed over the lawfulness of an abortion.

Mr Dingemans restated that the court of appeal had found that the health department had failed in its duty to issue guidance but, once that court had ruled, the guidance had to be proper guidance.He added that abortion was always illegal; what was legal was an intervention to save a mother's life.

Mr Dingemans pointed out that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ guidance on late term abortion said that the child must not be born alive, or the doctor risked prosecution if his actions after the delivery resulted in the child's death. It would be quite wrong to suggest that obstetricians and gynaecologists should read and apply this principle in the north of Ireland.

Lord Justice Girvan reserved his judgement until after November.

Precious Life’s Petition Campaign continues with our volunteers collecting signatures across Northern Ireland calling on the Stormont Executive to withdraw their approval of the guidelines and restore protection to our unborn children.