[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Don't let local political parties off the hook. The Alliance for Choice in Northern Ireland is heading up a campaign for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. On Wednesday 22nd there will be a vote on an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in Westminster to extend the Act to Northern Ireland 41 years after its introduction in the rest of the UK. This Saturday at 2pm at Belfast City Hall the campaign is organising a symbolic '40 women' protest. 40 women will wear "it could be me t-shirts", representing the 40 women who leave Northern Ireland each week to have an abortion. Organise! will be supporting this demonstration and we urge everyone who can to attend. While the campaign is urging everyone to contact MPs at Westminster to ask them to support this amendment we cannot let local political parties off the hook. Organise! are also planning to target local political parties in the run up to the 22nd. The four main political parties at the Stormont Assembly have made a virtue of how they are united in opposition to a woman's right to choose. Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party have all adopted an anti-woman, anti-choice position that increases hardship and puts the lives of women, particularly working class Organise! will be picketing the headquarters of the UUP, Lamont House, 429 Holywood Road at 1pm on Friday 17th October; the headquarters of the SDLP, 121 Ormeau Road, Belfast at 1pm on Monday 20th of October; the headquarters of the DUP, 91 Dunvale Avenue, Belfast at 1pm on Tuesday 21st of October and the Sinn Fein Press Office, 53 Falls Road at 1.00pm on Wednesday 22nd of October.[/FONT]
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]I hope anyone living in Belfast will come along. I will be at the one outside SF offices and later Belfast City hall.[/FONT]
