TUV MP Jim Allister to oppose 'abortion until birth' from Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy by Crime and Policing Bill
TUV leader Jim Allister will oppose proposed legislation in a Commons vote tomorrow which pro-life groups say could decriminalise abortion up until birth in England and Wales.
MPs are expected to get a free vote tomorrow on potentially far-reaching changes to abortion legislation.
They are expected to be given freedom to vote in line with their conscience with no direction from their parties.
It comes amid concern that more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy.
Two contrasting amendments about decriminalisation are under consideration, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi's bill focuses on protecting women from prosecution if they end their own pregnancy at any stage of gestation, ending the threat of investigation or imprisonment. The framework by which abortion is accessed would remain the same.
A rival amendment by Labour MP Stella Creasy seeks a broader reform by fully decriminalising abortion and establishing it as a human right. Creasy said her amendment would simply bring the rest of the UK into line with Northern Ireland, where abortion was decriminalised in 2019.
But some of Britain's biggest abortion care providers have expressed concern about her amendment being rushed through without proper scrutiny, saying it could open the door to a whole debate about a woman's right to an abortion.
Rachael Clarke, head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), warned that MPs should not be asked to back a “generational change” after just three hours of debate today week.
“For us, unfortunately, although we truly believe that we need overwhelming and generational change for abortion law, Stella Creasy's amendment is not the right way to do it,” she told Radio 4's ‘Today’ programme.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said both of the proposed amendments represent “the greatest threat to unborn children and their mothers since the Abortion Act”.
They urged supporters to lobby their MPs to vote against both proposals, warning that abortion “up to birth” could become possible under the changes.
Mr Allister shares SPUC’s concerns.
He said that either of the amendments “would see abortion up to full-term decriminalised by the removal of the legal provisions which criminalise such”.
He added: “In consequence a woman could self-administer abortion pills and, with risk to her own health, kill her unborn child, and, yet, no longer be breaking the law.
“At present the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 makes such an offence in respect of a child capable of independent existence outside the womb.”
Currently, he said, women may bypass the legal restrictions against most abortions after 24 weeks by buying abortion pills online.
“This is why I have signed an amendment which would require face-to-face medical consultation before such pills are provided.”
“Abortion up to birth is, to me, a wholly obnoxious and repugnant proposition, yet this is what the proposers of these amendments, Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi, are seeking to advance.”