Fight to Stop These Horrifying Abortion Amendments

KATHY GYNGELL

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 advances 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 being aborted at 22 weeks while another baby delivered at 22 weeks is fighting for her life with the support of medical staff. It is not a ‘pleasant’ topic, but taboos should not be allowed to blind us to the fact, namely that a second trimester abortion can result in a live birth, despite the feticidal injection routinely used to reduce the risk of this outcome. No, none of this bears thinking about. But we must.

Perhaps it is not surprising that polling from Savanta ComRes 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 per cent 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 ten weeks pregnant 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 would repeal 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.

If either of these amendments is 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 1, 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 co-ordinating 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 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.

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This article (Fight to stop these horrifying abortion amendments) was created and published by Conservative Woman and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Kathy Gyngell

The UK is about to pass Europe’s most extreme abortion law

The Commons must not allow the unpopular obsessions of Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi to change the rules

MIRIAM CATES

Britain may soon have one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world. Next week, the Commons will vote on amendments, proposed by Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi, to the Crime and Policing Bill that seek to decriminalise abortion up to the moment of birth.

In Britain, abortion is currently legal until 24 weeks of pregnancy. But for the pro-abortion lobby this isn’t enough. A YouGov survey revealed that 70 per cent of MPs think women should not be liable for prison sentences if they have abortions outside current restrictions. Yet this is wildly out of step with public opinion. Just 1 per cent of British people support abortion up to birth.

How is such a wildly unpopular opinion on the verge of becoming law?

Let’s rewind to 2020. The UK was in lockdown. Face-to-face appointments for abortions were suspended. Women were allowed to access over-the-phone appointments with clinicians and have abortion pills sent to them by post.

These pills can only be used legally until 10 weeks’ gestation. But without an in-person appointment, there is no way of knowing how far along a pregnancy has progressed. And there is no way of preventing women who are well past 10 weeks – and even past the 24-week limit – from claiming, or being coerced into claiming, that they are less than 10 weeks pregnant. Due to the risks, this arrangement was intended to be temporary.

But in 2022, pro-abortion MPs hijacked an unrelated Bill to make pills-by-post permanent. Many people – including me – warned that this would lead to an increase in illegal abortions, dangerous late-stage terminations, coercion and undetected abuse. And we were right.

In June 2023, Carla Foster was found guilty of aborting her baby eight months into pregnancy. She was given abortion pills after claiming she was only seven weeks pregnant.

In December 2024, Stuart Worby was jailed after spiking a woman’s drink with fraudulently-obtained abortion pills and ending the life of her unborn child.

In just 18 months after pills-by-post was introduced, some estimates suggest that more than 10,000 women had to receive hospital treatment after taking abortion pills at home.

These cases only exist because of pills-by-post, a scheme for which abortion providers enthusiastically campaigned. Before 2022, there were just three prosecutions for illegal abortions in 160 years. Yet instead of arguing for a return to face-to-face appointments, the abortion lobby is now capitalising on these prosecutions to convince MPs that women are being wrongly criminalised.

The consequences of full decriminalisation will be grim, with inevitable increases in coercion and medical complications. The experience of Victoria, Australia suggests we will see more babies born alive after failed “DIY” late-term abortions, and a rise in sex-selective abortions.

The Telegraph: continue reading