The UK has a vicious law that denies welfare support for a family's third and subsequent children. Now this is to be applied in Northern Ireland, where abortion is banned under criminal penalties.

To punish the children of large families by keeping them in poverty is evidently unjust, because they are not responsible for their birth. Furthermore, it tends to stunt their physical and mental development in such a way that it is difficult for them ever to get out of poverty.

If the UK government wants to discourage poor women from having more than two children, it should do so by giving them birth control and abortion gratis.