Belfast City Hall will be illuminated in green next month to celebrate an international campaign to permit abortion up to birth, prompting a backlash in the region.
The decision to illuminate Belfast City Hall on 28 September was made to celebrate International Safe Abortion Day after a City Council committee voted it through without debate.
The campaign has explicitly called for the “decriminalisation” of abortion and has called for “expand[ed] access to safe abortion by removing all policy barriers”. The complete decriminalisation of abortion and the removal of all policy barriers would make abortion legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy up until the point of birth.
This extreme position is radically at odds with the general population. Only 1% of women want abortion to be available up to birth, and 70% of women want the abortion limit to be reduced to 20 weeks or lower.
According to the Belfast News Letter, reports have confirmed that International Safe Abortion Day does not meet the criteria for illuminating Belfast City Hall, something that is usually done for council-run events, tourist events, and significant anniversaries of organisations with a Belfast connection. Groups related to medical procedures are explicitly ruled out in the eligibility criteria. Despite this, the City Council committee voted in favour of allowing it, with no debate.
Sarah Bunting, DUP Group Leader on Belfast City Council, stated that the landmark should not be “used to promote campaigns on deeply divisive and sensitive issues such as abortion”, but rather should be “a shared civic space welcoming to everyone”.
The decision must now come to the full council for ratification, and Bunting says her Party, which she describes as “a pro-life party and we believe in protecting the lives of both mothers and unborn children”, will seek to block it.