Member's statement: Coercive Control: Impact on Women and Children
Member's statement by Ms Aoife Finnegan on .
- MLA
- Ms Aoife Finnegan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 1 July 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Coercive Control: Impact on Women and Children
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5061092
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise with a heavy heart not only as a public representative but as a woman, a mother and a witness to the deep and lasting scars that coercive control inflicts on women and children. Since 2020, 27 women have been killed due to domestic abuse, with Sarah Montgomery — a pregnant mother of two — the latest to be lost to that type of violence. We often speak in the Chamber about protecting women and children, but the truth is that protection cannot exist only in words or the safety of a well-written policy: it must exist in reality, and that reality is often brutal, complicated and hidden behind closed doors. Coercive control is a form of abuse that strips a woman of her autonomy, her voice and, often, her children: the psychological violence is quiet but lethal. It is the manipulation of the systems to isolate a mother, erase her from her child's life and paint her as unstable or unworthy, all while appearing respectable to the outside world. We do not speak enough about the impact that that has on children: children who are used in battles that they never chose; children who are shaped by control, fear and silence; children who learn to second-guess love; and children who carry confusion, guilt or false loyalties into adulthood. Those children grow up believing that love is conditional, that safety is unpredictable and that truth depends on who has the power to tell it. Protecting women and children means more than responding to physical violence. It means recognising when a mother is being erased from her child's life through manipulation, gaslighting and legal intimidation. It means having the courage to believe her, even when her story makes us uncomfortable. It means looking deeper, because coercive control does not always leave bruises. If we are serious about protection, we need to stand with those women before they are broken. We need systems that understand coercion, protect maternal bonds and treat emotional abuse with the same urgency as physical abuse. There needs to be a cultural and systemic change through each of our Departments and society. I say this today not just to raise awareness but to call for action, because there are women and children who need more than sympathy. They need justice; they need truth; and they need to know that someone is willing to say, "That is not love. It is control, and we will not let it win".
411 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.78).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.99).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.08 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.78 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.99 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.01 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.67 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.33 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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