Bishop Dónal McKeown accuses Chris Heaton-Harris of being ‘high on ideological steroids’ after abortion education move

The Derry clergyman said: “Schools in NI will now be obliged to provide so called scientific information on abortion and contraception, as if they were issues where values and morality played no role.

"Anyone who has taught teenagers will know that relationships education is difficult in a world who with much sexual violence, pornography and many sad role models.

"The announcement by the NI Secretary of State that abortion is merely a normal health matter is high on ideological steroids and pedagogically blind with no obvious concern for children’s wellbeing.

"When schools are reduced to a battleground where the new ideology must be taught and there is no room for a different view, I fear that we will do more damage to our children’s future. The lesson of human rights can be a great servant but a bad master.”

Dr. McKeown made the remarks in his homily in St. Eugene's Cathedral on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 11.

The intervention followed Mr. Heaton-Harris’ announcement last week that the UK Government was updating the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in the North.

The Secretary of State has laid regulations in Parliament to implement a 2018 recommendation of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to ‘make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion in Northern Ireland, and monitor its implementation’.

The regulations, said Mr. Heaton-Harris, will mirror the approach taken in England with regard to education about the prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion.

"It has always been my preference that, as a devolved matter, the Department of Education in Northern Ireland updates the curriculum. However, nearly four years have passed since the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act 2019, adolescents in Northern Ireland are still not receiving comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights,” he said.

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