The Justice Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, David Ford (a member of the Alliance Party) subsequently issued a public consultation on amending the criminal law on abortion; the consultation opened in October 2014 and closed in January 2015. The call for consultation took into consideration cases where "there is a diagnosis in pregnancy that the foetus has a lethal abnormality". and cases where "women have become pregnant as a result of sexual crime". However, Mr Ford also wrote that "it is not a debate on the wider issues of abortion law – issues often labelled as 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life.