BELFAST, United Kingdom: Hundreds of pro-life campaigners protested outside the first ever private abortion clinic in Northern Ireland as it opened to the public on Thursday.
Around 200 protesters brandishing placards saying “Life is precious” and showing photographs of foetuses were gathered outside the privately run Marie Stopes clinic in central Belfast.
One banner read: “Abortion? The people of Northern Ireland say ‘not in my name’.”
Police have warned the media to avoid photographing or filming the faces of any clients or staff entering the clinic, which is housed in a nondescript building.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said any film or pictures identifying anyone going into the building would be a breach of British law and the European Convention on Human Rights.
One protester, James Dowson, who had traveled from Scotland to represent the UK Life League, said the clinic was “a money-making business” and “a gruesome deadly business that deals with the killing of unborn children.”
“We are here today to show solidarity with the people of Belfast,” he told AFP.
“Marie Stopes is not wanted here, it’s not wanted on the island of Ireland, north or south, where the people have repeatedly opposed and rejected abortion, but still these people, these internationalists, have come here.”
It is extremely difficult to get an abortion in Northern Ireland, a British province where there is strong opposition to changing the law on terminating pregnancies.
Northern Ireland is not covered by legislation which allows terminations up to 24 weeks into pregnancies in England, Scotland and Wales, the other three nations in the United Kingdom.
In Northern Ireland, it is legal to terminate a pregnancy, but only in the first nine weeks and only if the mother’s life is in danger or there is a risk to her mental or physical wellbeing.
Between 2006 and 2012, just 262 terminations were carried out in the province, which is home to 1.8 million people.
In the Catholic-dominated Republic of Ireland, legislation is even more draconian, with abortion illegal unless it is performed to save the life of the mother.
Northern Ireland’s health minister Edwin Poots this week warned the operators of the clinic to remain strictly within the letter of the law.
“Marie Stopes should be very cautious about what it does here, and we will ensure that the law is fulfilled,” he told the Northern Ireland Assembly.
“If some people think that they can get away with not observing the law, they may find that it is not a paper tiger but one with a lot of teeth. I caution any physician who would seek to challenge it.”
Ten policemen stood guard outside the clinic on Thursday, although it will be protected by private security guards under normal circumstances.
Emotions high as N. Ireland’s first abortion clinic opens
Emotions high as N. Ireland’s first abortion clinic opens
Merz says Germany exploring shared nuclear umbrella with European allies
- Germany is currently banned from developing a nuclear weapon
- Britain and France are the only European powers which have a nuclear arsenal
BERLIN: European nations are starting to discuss ideas around a shared nuclear umbrella to complement existing security arrangements with the US, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, amid growing talk in Germany of developing its own nuclear defenses.
Merz, speaking at a time of increased transatlantic tensions as US President Donald Trump upends traditional alliances, said the talks were only at an initial stage and no decision was imminent.
“We know that we have to reach a number of strategic and military policy decisions, but at the moment, the time is not ripe,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Germany is currently banned from developing a nuclear weapon of its own under the so-called Four Plus Two agreement that opened the way for the country’s reunification in 1990 as well as under a landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty that Germany signed in 1969.
Merz said Germany’s treaty obligations did not prevent it from discussing joint solutions with partners, including Britain and France, the only European powers which have a nuclear arsenal.
“These talks are taking place. They are also not in conflict with nuclear-sharing with the United States of America,” he said.
European nations have long relied heavily on the United States, including its large nuclear arsenal, for their defense but have been increasing military spending, partly in response to sharp criticism from the Trump administration.
Trump has rattled Washington’s European allies with his talk of acquiring Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally, and his threat, later rescinded, to impose tariffs on countries that stood in his way.
He has also suggested in the past that the US would not help protect countries that failed to spend enough on their own defense.
Merz’s comments were echoed by the head of the parliamentary defense committee, Thomas Roewekamp, who said Germany had the technical capacity which could be used in developing a European nuclear weapon.
“We do not have missiles or warheads, but we do have a significant technological advantage that we could contribute to a joint European initiative,” Roewekamp, from Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party, told Germany’s Welt TV.
