by Tim Dieppe, Christian Concern
Head of Public Policy Tim Dieppe covers the House of Lords debate on decriminalising abortion
On Monday this week, the House of Lords debated controversial Clause 191 of the Crime and Policing Bill which would decriminalise abortion for women acting in relation to their own pregnancy.
The amendment to include this clause in the Bill was passed in the House of Commons in June last year by a majority of 242 votes after just 46 minutes of debate. There was no consultation with the public and no evidence sessions or committee scrutiny before this clause was inserted into the bill. If passed, it will mark the biggest change to abortion law since abortion was first legalised in 1967.
Reintroducing back-street abortions
Baroness Monckton, supported by three other peers, proposed that clause 191 be removed from the bill. She noted that decriminalising abortion would effectively reintroduce back-street abortions:
“There is a supreme irony that those who claim to support legal abortion on the basis that the alternative would be unsafe—illegal abortions—are now proposing that women can perform such illegal abortions, outside the terms of the Abortion Act, in an unsafe environment. This law change would, in effect, reintroduce back-street abortion, as women would not be able to have terminations in a clinic beyond the 24-week limit but could do so at home, on their own, without the prospect of any subsequent investigation, using pills not designed for use outside of a clinical context beyond 10 weeks. The potential consequences are terrifying.”
She also pointed out that if this clause becomes law, “the viable unborn child would have the moral status of property, just as a slave did in the American Deep South in the 18th century.”