Devolving our right to choose.

The four main party leaders in Northern Ireland have written to Westminster MPs to state their opposition to plans to extend the 1967 Abortion Act.

Social reactionaries of the province unite!

Jeffrey Donaldson, chairman of the assembly's pro-life group, said: "The pro-life group in the assembly thought it would be useful for the four leaders to write to each MP re-stating that position.

I think it's a very powerful message we have here, four political leaders coming from very diverse political perspectives but united in their view that we do not want the 1967 Act, with all its implications, imposed on Northern Ireland and that the issue of abortion is a matter that should be left to the assembly itself."

Matters of social conscience should not be left anywhere near the Assembly.

The Assembly (like the churches and the bloke down the pub) have, of course, the right to express an opinion and persuade people over to their point of view. It does not have the right to dictate the social and cultural mores by which all of us in our claustrophobic society are forced to conform- for those of us who believe firmly in the concept of personal individual choice (DUPes and SF supporters should carefully check its definition in the dictionary) Westminster is our guarantor of last resort in that respect.