Debate intensifies in the UK as the House of Lords seeks to challenge a proposed amendment that could drastically change abortion laws in England and Wales.
Recently, the House of Commons approved an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, potentially removing legal restrictions on abortions past the 20-week mark. If enacted, this amendment could allow abortions up to birth.
In addition to addressing this amendment, Lords are considering reinstating the requirement for in-person consultations before an abortion. This policy was initially relaxed during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to the controversial ‘pills-by-post’ service enabling home abortions without direct medical oversight.
The home abortion scheme has faced criticism due to several incidents, such as a case where a man was imprisoned for acquiring abortion pills through the service and giving them to his pregnant partner, resulting in her losing the child and subsequent infertility.
In another incident, a woman was prosecuted after falsely claiming she was seven weeks pregnant to obtain abortion pills, when she was actually 32 to 34 weeks along. Opponents of the pills-by-post service argue that such tragedies might have been prevented with mandatory in-person consultations.
The Lords recently discussed the Crime and Policing Bill at its Second Reading, with 13 out of 20 peers opposing the abortion amendment.
Baroness Monckton has proposed an amendment to reverse the Commons’ decision to remove legal sanctions on abortion, while Baroness Stroud has submitted a proposal to reinstate in-person consultations.
Baroness Monckton stated, “This is an extreme social change for which there is no public pressure or demand, and could have tragic consequences for women, as well as leading to increased numbers of abortions of viable babies.”
She further added, “This radical clause was added to the Bill after less than an hour of debate by MPs, and without the necessary scrutiny required for an issue of such seriousness. Whatever one’s views on abortion, this is not how responsible laws are made.”
Baroness Stroud, discussing her own amendment, attributed the increase in prosecutions for illegal late-term abortions to the pills-by-post scheme.
“The solution to such cases is not to make matters worse by removing the legal deterrent against women performing their own at-home abortions up to birth, which would likely endanger women further, but to reinstate in-person consultations,” she remarked.
She continued, “I, and many others, warned of the dangers of the ‘pills by post’ scheme when it was introduced. Sadly, those warnings have come true. My amendment would ensure medical professionals can accurately assess a woman’s gestational age, any health risks and the risk of coercion before abortion pills are prescribed.”
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
