by Kathy Gyngell, TCW
YOU MAY remember that about this time last year, extreme abortion amendments were tabled to the then government’s Criminal Justice Bill, but Parliament was dissolved for the General Election before the debate could take place.
An opposing (good) amendment was also tabled at that time by a Conservative MP, Caroline Ansell, to bring the UK’s law closer in line with the rest of Europe, by reducing the general limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks – reflecting medical advances that mean babies born alive at 22 weeks can and do survive. The grim reality currently is that in the same hospital there could be a baby being aborted at 22 weeks while another baby delivered at 22 weeks is fighting for her life with the support of medical staff. It is not a pleasant topic, but taboos should be allowed to blind us to facts, namely that a second trimester abortion can result in a live birth even though feticidal injection is used to reduce the risk of this outcome.
Perhaps it is not surprising that polling from Savanta ComRes last year showed that 70 per cent of UK women believe in reducing the time limit, that 91 per cent agree that gender-selective abortion should be explicitly banned by the law, and 93 per cent that a woman considering abortion should have a legal right to independent counselling from a source that has no financial interest in her decision. This poll deserves reading in full.
Yet now, despite both public and, more importantly, women’s opinion, as I drew attention to in my TCW week in review, the ‘extreme abortion’ advocates are back doing their best to hijack a similar Bill – the Crime and Policing Bill – with two particularly horrifying amendments.