Paul KeenanA former leading member of Sinn Féin has revealed she has quit the party over its pro-abortion stance.
Speaking last weekend after the first meeting of Cherish All The Children Equally, a new cross-border pro-life lobby group, Anne Brolly said Sinn Féin’s 2015 motion to support abortion access in cases of foetal abnormality “was a step too far for me” and had let her membership of the party lapse as a result. She added in a subsequent interview: “With regard to abortion, I can’t compromise on principle”.
Insisting that Sinn Féin “has to be reflective of all the views of all the people who vote for them”, she insisted “it’s an abuse of power to make people vote against their conscience, so it was from that perspective that I left Sinn Féin,” and said if the party had offered a free vote on the abortion issue, she would not have felt compelled to leave.
Change
She added that other members of Sinn Féin had also quit the party over the issue, though her husband, former Stormont MLA Francie Brolly has confirmed his intention to remain within the party to “try to change it”. He has also said in relation to his communication with the party leadership on the abortion question that, thus far, “we have agreed to differ”.
Like his wife, Mr Brolly has also joined Cherish All the Children Equally, which plans to oppose any liberalising of abortion laws in the North and the proposed repeal of the Eight Amendment of the Republic’s Constitution on the right to life of the unborn.
The Brollys are joined in their position on abortion by Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tobin TD, who also rejected the 2015 abortion move while choosing to remain in the party.