Peers have cleared the way for abortion up to birth in England and Wales, defeating a last-ditch attempt to block one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to pass through Parliament in living memory.
The House of Lords rejected by 185 votes to 148 a bid by Tory peer Baroness Monckton to strip the clause from the Crime and Policing Bill. The provision, which cleared the Commons last June, would remove criminal liability for terminations carried out for any reason — including sex selection — at any stage of pregnancy, including during labour.
Former Health Minister Maria Caulfield warned that the change would mean “infanticide… would become possible with no legal consequence”, adding that “our society will be damaged and its moral credibility greatly diminished.”
Catherine Robinson, spokeswoman for Right to Life, called it “one of the most extreme pieces of legislation ever to pass the House of Commons and the House of Lords.”
“It is a travesty that such an enormous and terrible legislative change, which will directly endanger the lives of unborn babies well beyond the point at which they would be able to survive outside the womb, as well as the lives of their mothers, has been allowed to happen,” she said.
“There is no public appetite for this change, and it was not part of the Government’s manifesto.”
No public appetite
According to a GB News report, the scale of public opposition to the measure is stark. Research by Savanta ComRes puts support for abortion up to birth at just one per cent of the British population. Those campaigning against the clause have warned it will produce a marked rise in women carrying out late-term terminations without medical supervision.
Those in favour countered that the core purpose of the change was to ensure no woman could face “investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment” for ending her own pregnancy.
A separate attempt to reverse the rules on abortion pills also failed. Peers threw out amendment 425, brought forward by Baroness Stroud, which sought to make face-to-face appointments with a clinician mandatory before the medication could be dispensed. The margin was decisive — 191 votes to 119.
Women who are fewer than ten weeks into a pregnancy are currently permitted to take the pills at home, a practice that would have been subject to new restrictions under the defeated amendment, states the report.
Pardons granted
On a third vote, the Lords chose to extend a pardon to women who carry historic criminal convictions for ending their own pregnancies. The measure passed by 180 to 58.
Termination remains a criminal act in England and Wales in the absence of medical authorisation, but is lawful up to 24 weeks with a registered provider. A narrow band of exceptions permits the procedure beyond that point — principally where continuing the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s life, or where the foetus has been diagnosed with a serious abnormality.
Should the Commons amendment reach the statute book, those who assist a woman in terminating a pregnancy after the 24-week threshold — including medical professionals — would remain liable to prosecution.
