I share the passion of the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) on this matter and increasingly on many other things. She is absolutely right. Stopping safe, legal abortion does not stop abortions happening; it just stops safe abortions happening, as we have seen from the women taking pills who have been unable to seek help from their doctors in Northern Ireland. Stopping same-sex marriage does not stop people of the same sex falling in love with each other; it just stops them having the equal respect and dignity that comes from being able to marry who they love and say it proudly. It is a simple right that all of us in this Chamber would want and that all of us seek for our constituents.
However, I recognise that those are matters for the Assembly, and that is why I want to remind Members here that this new clause respects that process because it looks at the legislation before us today and asks who, in the absence of a functioning Assembly, can be the champion of the human rights of the people of Northern Ireland. It asks who can address the incompatibilities that these court proceedings are identifying, and who can ensure that we do not spend another 10, 20 or 30 years hearing the stories of shame, of hurt and of the rights abuses of the people of Northern Ireland, and simply shrugging our shoulders because politicians cannot get their act together to have an Assembly.
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The answer is sitting opposite us, in the role of the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State cannot stand up for the human rights of the people of Northern Ireland in the circumstances, and if she cannot account to us as a House about the impact of legislation written in this place on the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, who can? This is not about the Assembly. It is not about us directly. It is about the Secretary of State, and the new clause would simply ensure that that role cannot be avoided.
The people of Northern Ireland need to hear now that their rights are not going to be the casualty of the chaos that we are seeing right now in Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland, who need their rights to be protected, need to know now that they will find friends across this House. We have already seen that in the numbers of people signing the new clause, and I hope, given that it does not set out a new law but recognises accountability and responsibility, that it will find favour across the House. The people of Northern Ireland, whose rights have been such a political football for so long, need and deserve nothing less from all of us.