(LifeSiteNews) — The House of Lords has confirmed the decriminalization of abortion in England and Wales, allowing women to kill their unborn children themselves up until birth.
The House of Lords voted to back the plans to decriminalize abortion for mothers up to birth, approved by the House of Commons last summer.
On Wednesday, peers in the House of Lords rejected an amendment brought by Conservative Baroness Sheila Lawlor by 185 to 148 votes that sought to remove the clause that allowed women to kill their unborn child up to birth.
For doctors and other healthcare workers, the 24-week abortion limit will remain in place, meaning they could still be charged if they perform an abortion after this point in a pregnancy. However, if a pregnant woman decides to carry out an abortion after 24 weeks, for instance, via abortion pills obtained illegally or otherwise, she cannot be prosecuted for that action under the new legislation.
Pro-life advocates argue that this will lead to more third-trimester abortions, which are also dangerous for the mother, in addition to killing the unborn child.
“If the Crime and Policing Bill receives Royal Assent, it will no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions, for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth,” Right to Life UK wrote.
“This change to the law would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women,” the pro-life group argued.
Right to Life UK cited the situation in New Zealand, where abortion was decriminalized in 2020, “and the country saw a 43% increase in late-term abortions” that year.
The group also noted that the abortion lobby’s goals are completely out of step with the general public opinion on the matter.
“As you may be aware, polling shows that 89% of the general population and 91% of women agree that gender-selective abortion should be explicitly banned by the law – and only 1% of women support introducing abortion up to birth,” Right to Life UK stated.
“The same polling shows that 60% of the general population and 70% of women want to see our abortion time limit lowered to 20 weeks or below,” the group added.
