Regardless of their political loyalties, all the major parties in the north are fully opposed to abortion - although a substantial percentage of the population think terminations should be allowed there. The fact that the four main parties in the North are standing shoulder-to-shoulder these days is widely regarded as the wonder of the age.

But Northern women with unwanted pregnancies may take a different view.
Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, Reg Empey and Mark Durkan have all signed a letter warning Westminster against any notion of extending the 1967 Abortion Act to the North. The DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson was pleased to explain that he was speaking for Sinn Fein, the UUs and the SDLP, too, when he toured radio studios on May 12 claiming that 90 percent of the North’s electorate were opposed to “allowing abortion in.”
The position of some of the parties appears to be that it’s wrong to kill people until after they’re born.
The issue of extension of the Act has arisen in the course of the continuing Westminster debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
Does the fact that the four biggest parties take the “pro-life” position mean that hardly anybody in the North supports a woman’s right to choose? No. A considerable body of opinion responds to the prospect of the extension the 1967 Act with the thought: “And about time, too.”
Women’s groups in both Catholic and Protestant areas support extension. So does the NI Family Planning Association. The biggest trades unions agree, including the two biggest in Britain and Ireland, Unite and Unison. The biggest local union, Nipsa, which organises only in the six counties, also supports the extension of the Act.
This reflects a part of Northern reality which is not represented in the politics of the Assembly.
People in the North still tend to vote for the party they reckon best represents the religion-defined community they come from. But this doesn’t mean that a majority live their lives according to the edicts of the religions concerned.
More than half (58 percent) of all births in Belfast last year were to unmarried parents: more than three quarters of these registered the birth jointly. And the zealots who tried to thwart the introduction of civil partnerships failed miserably to generate a credible campaign.
Northern people are far more progressive in their approach to social issues than mainstream politicians care or dare to acknowledge.
In the end, it comes down to money. The main effect of the fact that the Act doesn’t operate is that women who can’t afford the cost of travel and a private operation are prevented from ending intolerable pregnancies.
The other major effect is that, because of the obstacle course they have to confront, Northern Irish women are three times more likely than British women to have late abortions.
Women in Northern Ireland pay the same taxes as women across the water. Why should they have to go through hassle and turmoil to avail of a procedure which is freely available on the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales?
Northern Ireland GPs who have no conscientious objection to referral for abortion are not allowed to refer women for a legal procedure in another part of the same jurisdiction. What sense does this make?
Mo Mowlam was once asked by a Glasgow Labour MP why, when she’d voted in Opposition for the extension of the Act, she refused to move on the issue now she was Secretary of State. The peace process was at a delicate stage, confided Mowlam : “We mustn’t stir up the tribal elders.”
The same message comes now from the four main tribal elders: women must wait.
Shouldn’t Southern supporters of some of the parties concerned be raising hell with their leaderships about this craven behaviour?

“Jaw-droppingly brilliant,” thunders the Times (of London) of Derry heirs-to-greatness Fighting With Wire.
With album Man Vs. Monster available in selected outlets everywhere, and blissfully-named single ‘Everybody Needs a Nemesis’ set for release on June 2, the pyro-punk princlings of Pennyburn Pass have just pencilled in a string of gigs in major European cities and Dublin.
Dolans, Limerick, on May 25; The Hub, Dublin, on the 28; Spirit Store, Dundalk, 29; Nerve Centre, 30, Spring and Airbrake, Belfast, June 3. And thence, Paris, Lille, Rotterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Frankfurt, Donnington, London and hence. Fighting With Wire have been on the road, or at least up and down the giddy streets, for five years now, humping the gear, thumping the music, doing delicate with melody.
Amble along. Sense soul sinfully aquiver at the end of the evening. Ah...

On July 26, at Eagle’s Rock amid the rolling romance of the Sperrin Mountains in the vicinity of hallowed Draperstown, the Festival of the Year, Glasgowbury, will, again, provide a glorious setting for the best and vibrant sounds and airs that give delight and hurt not.
The sensational Fighting With Wire will be back to score three-in-a-row, as will Oppenheimer, the Belfast duo who have rewritten the rules.
More info, including headliners, next issue.
For now: set it down in your diary. Or just resolve to remember. Glasgowbury. Eagle’s Rock. July 26.
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
Or mayhem so almighty, which is much the same thing.
Terrific burgers, too. And Hookey McDermott lurking with the wherewithal.