Abortion Northern Ireland: Lord Steel, architect of liberal GB law, says too many abortions taking place in England and Wales
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Jul 2019, 08:00 BST
The key architect of England’s 1967 abortion legislation – Lord Steel of the Liberal Democrats – has told the News Letter he still believes there are too many abortions taking place in Great Britain under the law he spearheaded.
He was speaking after MPs voted to relax abortion legislation in NI, where it is currently only legal if there is a risk to a woman’s health. In England it is legal up to 24 weeks if signed off by two doctors.
Speaking to Lord Steel, the News Letter discussed his more recent reflections on his 1967 act. In 2004 he advocated “reform” and was “increasingly drawn” to a more restrictive 22-week limit.
In 2007, he said that abortion was being used as a form of contraception and admitted he never anticipated “anything like” the current number of terminations when he was framing the 1967 Act.
“Everybody can agree that there are too many abortions,” he said, as he called for better sex education and access to contraceptive advice, and a debate on morality, to bring the numbers down.
He added at that time: “I accept that there is a mood now which is that if things go wrong you can get an abortion, and it is irresponsible, really. I think people should be a bit more responsible in their activities, and in particular in the use of contraception.”
Then in 2017 he called for decriminalisation, which critics believe would lead to an end to all restrictions and a surge in abortion rates.
But asked to explain why his position appears to have changed so significantly from 2004-2017, he affirmed his view that there are still too many abortions taking place today – almost 200,700 in England and Wales last year.
“I still think there are too many, and [that it is] wrong to use abortion as contraception,” he told the News Letter. “So no contradiction!”
Asked to reflect on his criticim of his own law and what shape he thought NI legislation should take, he replied: “I imagine the Commons will wish to update the 1967 legislation.”
Also asked if he supported the MPs’ vote to relax NI abortion legislation, he replied: “Yes, it’s long overdue.
“Though Jeremy Hunt and Nicola Sturgeon both recently allowed NI women access to NHS facilities [for abortions in GB], that was still expensive and inconvenient.”