MPs weaponise Criminal Justice Bill to liberalise abortion law

Pro-abortion MPs are attempting to hijack the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales.

Following the Bill’s first parliamentary debate, Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson tabled an amendment to remove “women from the criminal law related to abortion”, while Labour MP Stella Creasy pushed for regulations to make “whatever changes appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or appropriate for the decriminalisation of abortion”.

Although both MPs claim their proposals would not allow abortion up to birth, it would mean that no woman could be prosecuted for using home abortion pills to kill her unborn baby even after the current ten week limit.

BPAS supplies pills

In Britain, abortion is legal for most reasons up to 24 weeks. Temporary regulations from the coronavirus pandemic allowing women who are less than ten weeks pregnant to take abortion pills without medical supervision became permanent last year, following pressure from pro-abortion activists.

In June, it was revealed that in 2020 abortion giant BPAS had supplied DIY pills to a woman who was around 33 weeks pregnant. She later gave birth to baby Lily who was stillborn.

Following the court’s ruling, BPAS CEO Clare Murphy claimed there “has never been a clearer mandate for parliamentary action and the need has never been so urgent” while Creasy called for the law to give women a “legal human right to a safe abortion at the time of her choosing”.

Admission

In response to a question in the House of Commons on the “sudden rash of prosecutions of women” for abortion offences, Creasy admitted that one pressure could be “the move towards telemedicine”.

The Criminal Justice Bill will now proceed to Committee Stage, where MPs will be able to vote on the amendments.

Abortion facts and figures

In the first six months of 2022, the number of abortions in England and Wales rose by 17 per cent.
According to the Department of Health and Social Care, 123,219 abortions were carried out between January and June 2022 compared to 105,488 during the same period in 2021.
The total number of abortions in 2021 was the highest ever.
The time limit for abortion is 12 weeks in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Greece. It’s 14 weeks in France and Spain.
‘Viability’, i.e. when babies are expected to survive outside the womb, was originally set at at 28 weeks. In 1990, due to medical advances it was lowered to 24 weeks. But there’s still no limit where a child is deemed to have a disability.
In 2019, two in five babies born at 23 weeks and receiving treatment in UK neonatal units were expected to survive.
A baby born at the age of the child in the Foster case would almost certainly survive. Many mothers have told of how their children, born at 33 weeks or younger, are now healthy adults.