NINETEEN Bishops are among more than 250 Church of England clergy who have signed a letter condemning a move to decriminalise women who induce their own abortion as “a dangerous change”.
On Tuesday, MPs voted by 379 to 137 in favour of an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill brought by the Labour MP for Gower, Tonia Antoniazzi. This disapplies the existing criminal law relating to abortion from women “acting in relation to her own pregnancy”. The amendment does not change any law regarding the provision of abortion within a healthcare setting.
The letter, published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, says: “We are troubled by the amendment voted through by the House of Commons on Tuesday to decriminalise terminations in utero up to full term. As many elected politicians move further away from the Christian moral values that have hitherto shaped much that is good in our national life, our concern is that the vulnerable and voiceless are increasingly overlooked.
“The tragedy of abortion will invariably move us to compassion for the pregnant woman, we are mindful also of the viability of the life of her child who is also deserving of compassion and needs protection under the law.
“This huge change in our understanding of the place of the termination of pregnancies also risks overlooking the vulnerable position of women who are victims of sexual abuse, domestic abuse and coercion, which is all the more acute due to the availability of the abortion pill by post without recourse to in-person consultation with a medical professional.
”All of this makes for a dangerous change which we believe, far from protecting women, places pregnant women and unborn children at even greater risk of harm than previously. It is our sincere hope that this legislation will be further modified in the House of Lords to protect those who are vulnerable.”
A statement issued by a Church House spokesperson on Wednesday said: “Whilst women ought not to be criminalised, it is worrying that this very significant change to the law may lead to more late-term abortions, including sex-selective abortions” (News, 20 June).
The Daily Telegraph letter (the signatories numbered 256 on Friday morning) was organised by the Vicar of St Luke’s, Hammersmith, in west London, the Revd Richard Bastable. They include six diocesan bishops: the Bishops of Chichester, Birmingham, Lincoln, Rochester, Hereford, and Blackburn.
On Thursday, the chairmen of The Society’s Council of Bishops and Forward in Faith — the Bishop of Fulham, Rt Revd Jonathan Baker, and the Bishop of Oswestry, the Rt Revd Paul Thomas — issued a statement.
“Few can imagine the pain and trauma which must be experienced by an expectant mother who terminates her pregnancy by means of abortion,” it said. “Nevertheless, our concern and compassion for women who have or who might experienced this trauma cannot allow us to set aside our very grave concern about the recent amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, passed in the House of Commons, which effectively decriminalises abortion even at full term.
“Far from protecting pregnant women, this change to the law would, if enacted, make women in the later stages of pregnancy more vulnerable to ending their pregnancies prematurely and dangerously, once legal safeguards have been removed. Our concern here is not only for these unborn children, but for women experiencing coercion, abuse, or whose mental health is compromised because of the circumstances in which they find themselves.
“Coupled with the draft proposals on assisted dying which will shortly return to the House of Commons for further consideration, we register our profound disquiet at the manner in which respect for the God-given dignity of every human life is being eroded because of the decisions of a majority of our elected representatives. We pray that legislators will continue to uphold the presumption of the sanctity of life and the protection of the vulnerable: values shared not only by all mainstream Christian traditions, but also by all historic world faiths.
“As catholic Christians beginning our celebrations of the Feast of Corpus Christi today, we give thanks for our calling to be the Body of Christ in the world and to witness to the dignity of every human life, made in the image and likeness of Almighty God whose divine Son shared our humanity from his conception in the womb of blessed Mary and who gives Himself to us now in the form of Bread and Wine.”
Statements issued earlier, on the evening of the vote, came from organisations that included the Evangelical Alliance, which described the result as “a tragic failure. The purpose of abortion law is to protect and support both lives in every pregnancy from toxic substances or dangerous operations. Abortion should remain within criminal law because it involves the deliberate ending of a human life. Removing both lives in pregnancy from criminal law puts both lives at risk. In effect, Parliament have voted to facilitate dangerous backstreet abortions where dangerous, even late-term abortion is legitimised, and women are left more vulnerable than ever.”
Ms Antoniazzi’s amendment followed an earlier attempt to amend the law by the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, Diana Johnson, who moved an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill under the last government, last year.
Asked about the Church of England’s position, the then Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous, said: “The Church of England believes that the foetus is a human life with the potential to develop, while recognising that there can be strictly limited conditions under which abortion may be morally preferable to any available alternative.
“The Church also believes that every possible support, especially by church members, should be given to those who are pregnant and in difficult circumstances. . . While women should not face criminalisation, anyone coercing a woman to have an abortion, or providing one beyond the legal limit, or supplying an abortion kit for a late-term use should be prosecuted.”
He told MPs that the Church supported the two-week reduction in the age of viability from 24 to 22 weeks’ “protection for Down’s syndrome children to make the case that abortion beyond the legal limit should not be acceptable for such children.”
In 2022, the then Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, opposed the continuation of the “pills by post” scheme established during the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby women can be sent abortion pills by post after a telephone consultation. In the House of Lords, he spoke about “the potential for coercion, the greater possibility of inaccurate assessment, further complications and lack of support. . . In-person visits to a clinic or medical centre continue to be vital.”
During the debate on Tuesday, the Conservative MP for Reigate, Rebecca Paul, told MPs that only three women had been convicted for an illegal abortion during the past 160 years, according to a former medical director of Marie Stopes. But since the introduction of the telemedicine system, “four women have appeared in court on similar charges within an eight-month period. Criminalisation of abortion after 24 weeks is not the problem; the pills-by-post scheme is.”
Ms Antoniazzi told MPs that, since 2020, more than 100 women had been criminally investigated, six had faced court, and one had been sent to prison.
The Conservative MP for South West Devon, Rebecca Smith, a member of Christians in Parliament, referred to freedom-of-information requests which revealed that one in 17 women who took pills by post required hospital treatment — equivalent to more than 10,000 women between April 2020 and September 2021. MPs rejected an amendment that would have required women to have an in-person consultation before being prescribed abortion pills lawfully.
