House of Lords following Northern Ireland to approve abortion until birth 'unutterbly grim' says campaigner
It is "unutterbly grim" that England and Wales are to follow Northern Ireland and make abortion up until birth lawful, a campaign group has said.
Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of The Christian Institute was speaking after Peers in the House of Lords backed plans to decriminalise abortions, which MPs voted in favour of last summer.
Last year Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi launched her bid to end police investigations into abortions, with an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
She said this would “disapply existing criminal law related to abortion from women acting in relation to her own pregnancy at any gestation”.
Her aim was to stop police investigating women who use lawful drugs to induce abortions after the legal 24 week deadline.
The amendment would also clear the police records of women who were cautioned or investigated.
It comes after a landmark move by MPs in June last year to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.
Voting on Wednesday night, the upper chamber supported by 180 votes to 58 an amendment by Labour peer Lady Thornton to pardon those women.
Peers also rejected an attempt to overturn the decision by MPs to decriminalise women terminating their own pregnancy.
Conservative peer Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest tabled an amendment in the Lords to remove the “radical proposal” from the draft law, which she said was passed in the Commons “without any evidence, scrutiny, public consultation or impact assessment”. She argued that decriminalisation actually endangers women “by removing the current legal deterrent against administering an abortion away from a clinical setting right up to birth”.
However her amendment was rejected by 185 votes to 148.
The Lords also rejected a bid to make it mandatory for a pregnant woman to have an in-person consultation before lawfully being prescribed medicine for a home abortion.
Tory peer Baroness Stroud argued this would allow medics to check women’s gestational age and health risks and protect against coercion and abuse.
However peers rejected her amendment by 191 votes to 119.
Peers went on to reject further amendments, one to create an offence of obtaining abortion pills by lying, and another to require an in-person consultation to obtain abortion pills if the pregnant person is under 18.
Abortion in England and Wales remains a criminal offence except with authorised providers up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing it afterward.
Speaking in the Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, opposed the decriminalisation of women terminating their own pregnancies, because it “risks making an imperfect situation worse”.
Under the Commons amendment, medics who facilitate an abortion after 24 weeks could still face prosecution.
The changes come after abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019.
Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of The Christian Institute said: “It is unutterably grim that the House of Lords has voted to permit a woman to take the life of her baby right up until birth. They have shown little regard for public feeling which is strongly opposed to this. They have dehumanised the unborn to a shocking new degree. And they have abandoned women.
"Northern Ireland has already gone down this dark path, but the absence of pills by post here has been a restraint. In England and Wales, telemedicine has already seen a 30% increase in abortions."