YOU MAY remember that about this time last year, extreme abortion amendments were tabled to the then government’s Criminal Justice Bill, but Parliament was dissolved for the General Election before the debate could take place.
An opposing (good) amendment was also tabled at that time by a Conservative MP, Caroline Ansell, to bring the UK’s law closer in line with the rest of Europe, by reducing the general limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks – reflecting medical advancements that mean babies born alive at 22 weeks can and do survive. The grim reality currently is that in the same hospital there could be a baby at 22 weeks being aborted while another baby is delivered at 22 weeks fighting for her life with the support of medical staff. It is not a pleasant topic, but taboos should be allowed to blind us to facts, namely that a second trimester abortion can result in a live birth even though feticidal injection is used to reduce the risk of this outcome.
Perhaps it is not surprising that polling from Savanta Com Res last year showed that 70 per cent of UK women believe in reducing the time limit, that 91 per cent agree that gender-selective abortion should be explicitly banned by the law and 93 percent that a woman considering abortion should have a legal right to independent counselling from a source that has no financial interest in her decision. This poll deserves reading in full.
Yet now, despite both public and, more importantly, women’s opinion, as I drew attention to in my TCW week in review, the ‘extreme abortion’ advocates are back doing their best to hijack a similar Bill – the Crime and Policing Bill – with two particularly horrifying amendments.
First is the New Clause 1, tabled by Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower (who has taken up the mantle of Diana Johnson behind it last year but who as a Minister may not move amendments), which seeks to change criminal law so that ‘no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy’ at any gestation. This means that a woman who induced her abortion at home using pills (or any other method) at any stage of pregnancy, including just before natural birth, would not commit a crime.
Though the danger to women’s health is obvious, the abortion provider BPAS is backing this amendment. The case of Nicola Packard given abortion pills by remote NHS consultation during Lockdown – thinking she was 10 weeks when she was 26 weeks – charged but cleared by a Jury, has been widely cited in the MSM as why decriminalisation is needed. But as every MP ought to know hard cases make bad law.
New Clause 17, tabled by Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, is even more extreme. It repeals the laws that form the legal underpinning of the current abortion law, meaning that there would be no way to bring to justice an abusive partner who causes the death of an unborn baby. It appears to have less support.
But if either of these amendments are passed, it would be the most massive expansion of abortion since the 1967 Abortion Act. Both amendments would legalise sex-selective abortions and leave women and unborn babies vulnerable to dangerous procedures or medicines. New Clause , still, in my opinion exposes woman to more pressure from abusive partners especially from cultures that do not prize female babies.
Pro-life groups have been coordinating to organise opposition to abortion up to birth and the legalisation of sex-selective abortion. They include: Abortion Resistance, ADF UK, CBR UK, Christian Concern, CitizenGO, Good Counsel Network, March for Life, Rachel’s Vineyard, SPUC, Voice for Justice UK, 40 Days for Life and several others.
Whichever side one takes on this issue, it is hard not to see that decriminalisation of abortion up to birth is an extreme and frightening (hyper feminist) ideological position that benefits no one, that removes essential social sanctions. As can be seen in the case of of Nicola Packard, the law was not in the event punitive at all. The jury presumably saw she had suffered enough. Of course it should have been the Government in the dock that closed hospitals and health services during Lockdown, leaving pregnant women isolated.
The bottom line is that either of these amendments will sanction or worse encourage late stage abortions which carry far greater risk to the mental and physical health of a woman, let alone end the lives of viable, fully-developed babies who could survive outside the womb if given the chance to live. I can’t put it better than Lois McLatchie Miller of ADF UK: ‘A humane society prevents this horrendous trauma. Rather than late-stage abortion, women and their babies deserve better care and support to survive and thrive.’
The Report stage of this Bill is expected next week when MPs will be given a free vote.
We really must defeat these evil amendments. So please contact your MP now, asking them to oppose and, if necessary, vote against New Clauses 1 and 17.
You can use the tool on the SPUC website. This brings up who your MP is and provides a template text to help you. Please edit this template text into your own words, and add your own thoughts and concerns. As you know personal messages are much more effective than stock emails. Briefings on both amendments are available on the campaign page.
We have very little time, so please do all you can to defeat this horrifying push to strip unborn babies, and their mothers, of any remaining protection.
