Britain’s House of Commons is set to vote next week on two amendments that would decriminalize abortion from conception until birth. The debate and vote are expected to occur June 17 or 18.
One amendment, introduced by Parliament member Tonia Antoniazzi, has received support from 136 Parliament members. Supporting the amendment is the Labour Party, the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives. The amendment, which would modify the Crime and Policing Bill, allows women to have an abortion without facing prosecution or investigation, even if the procedure is done outside of legal restrictions.
The explanatory statement attached to the amendment says the clause would apply to any pregnant woman “at any gestation.”
The other amendment, introduced by Stella Creasy, would decriminalize abortion before 24 weeks.
This would avoid the need for some of the requirements of the Abortion Act, the explanatory statement says. “It would ensure that late-term abortions outside the Abortion Act do not result in custodial sentences, and that future regulations have regard to the recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.”
The amendment could undermine Britian’s 1967 Abortion Act, which permits abortion before 24 weeks under the following circumstances only: if the pregnancy endangers a woman’s life; poses a grave risk to injuring the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; or if there is a substantial risk that if the child were born, it would face serious physical or mental handicaps.
Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, called the legislation “state-sanctioned murder.”
“These kinds of policies are incredibly, incredibly dangerous,” Gardiner said in an interview with the Daily Signal. “And it would lead to the sort of situation that you have in China today, really, as a result of these extreme abortion polices. I think that would be the inevitable result of this—the killing of a large number of babies. No society in the world should be condoning these kinds of policies, but there is no limit to the cruelty and heartlessness and inhumanity of socialism.”
