Pro-abortion MPs have hijacked a parliamentary debate to demand that legal safeguards protecting the unborn are abandoned.
During a debate to mark International Women’s Day, Jackie Doyle-Price pushed for a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation and Dame Diane Johnson called for abortion to be made available on demand.
Under the Abortion Act 1967, women are allowed to abort their unborn babies for effectively any reason before 24 weeks. Abortion is already available up to birth for children deemed to have a disability.
Decriminalise
Conservative MP Doyle-Price claimed the 1967 Act had to change so that abortions could be made “much more readily available”.
She also argued that abortion should no longer be considered “an issue of conscience”.
Welcoming Doyle-Price’s speech, Labour’s Johnson said the country needed to treat abortion merely “as a healthcare matter”.
Sex-selective abortion
In 2015, MPs rejected an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion, proposed by Fiona Bruce, by 292 to 201 votes.
Aiming to improve protections for the unborn under the 1967 Act, Bruce noted in her speech that, while the Government said the practice was illegal, abortion providers were “staggeringly” refusing to accept that.
Rani Bilkhu, a long-time campaigner on the issue, commented that the result was “an insult to the women we work with who have suffered under the burden of sex-selective abortion and have said they want clarity in the law.
“To think that a few Westminster bubble MPs could scupper such an important vote mocks the very fabric of British democracy.”
Heidi Crowter reflects on her battle to end disability discrimination in the womb
