According to a recent public consultation that garnered 13,461 responses, nearly 75% of parents in Northern Ireland oppose a proposal by the British government that would require schools, including Catholic schools, to teach students how to access abortion.
Last year, the UK government announced that it was looking to update Northern Ireland’s “Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)” with “age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion.”
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, said that the regulations will “mirror the approach taken in England.” According to Right to Life UK, students in England are taught how to get an abortion without parental knowledge and are told to book an appointment with an abortion facility even before they are sure whether or not they are pregnant.
According to OSV News, 73% of the Northern Ireland survey respondents disagreed with the RSE program. Additionally, 92% of the respondents agreed that parents or caregivers should be informed of the nature and content of any RSE program, and 96% agreed that they should always have access to any RSE program for review.
Bernadette Smyth, director of the pro-life organization Precious Life, told OSV News that the survey results were “unprecedented.”
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“This shows the strength of feeling from the people of Northern Ireland on this issue,” she said, adding that the UK “must end their complete disregard for democracy and devolution (to local politicians), and their total disrespect for the views of the people of Northern Ireland.”
“We demand Heaton-Harris and the government listen to the 73 percent majority in Northern Ireland, and remove this abortion-promoting RSE program from our schools,” she said.
Last June, the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference blasted the decision to introduce the pro-abortion education.
“Having already imposed some of the most radical abortion laws in the world on the people of Northern Ireland, without their consent, the Secretary of State now seems determined to impose an ideologically biased view of abortion on all schools, irrespective of parental rights or school ethos,” the bishops’ statement read.
“This is radical legislation the British Government doesn’t even impose on schools in Britain, where the right of parents to be involved in decisions about such ethical and pastoral issues is fully respected.”
