British MPs are set to vote next week on amendments that broadly seek to decriminalize abortions carried out in circumstances other than those permitted under the current legislation.
The amendments have been slammed by pro-life activists, who have warned that abortion advocates in parliament are seeking to “hijack the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill by tabling amendments to remove abortion from the criminal law”.
Abortion in England and Wales is permitted up to 24 weeks, and in certain other circumstances, such as when the child would be born with a severe disability, under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967.
However, rival amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill would decriminalise abortions that take place outside of those limits.
An amendment (NC1) tabled by Labour MP, Tonia Antoniazzi, would decriminalise abortion at any stage for a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy, leaving the broader abortion access framework untouched.
In a viral interview clip this week, Antoniazzi affirmed that she is “comfortable” with changing the law to ensure that a woman could end a pregnancy at any time, including late pregnancy, without committing an offence.
“I was brought up a Catholic, I’ve sat and had all of the propaganda thrown at me as a child in school,” she said in response to the question during an appearance on Times Radio.
“You’ve got to look at the whole situation and realise that it’s not changing the law for the doctor, who’ll still be criminalised if they are delivering a baby post-24 weeks. The system has got to be more robust, the woman has got to be at the heart of this legislation,” she said.
Antoniazzi’s amendment has received broad support from abortion providers in the UK, including the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and MSI Reproductive Choices – the largest such organisations operating in the UK.
However, a second amendment (NC20) brought by another Labour backbencher, Stella Creasy MP, has received pushback from the same organisations, which claim that Creasy’s proposals are “not the right way” to go about abortion law change in the UK.
Creasy’s amendment seeks to enshrine access to abortion as a human right, while more broadly decriminalising abortion than intended under Antoniazzi’s amendment.
NC20 would see abortion decriminalised not just for a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy, at any stage of the pregnancy, but for anyone else involved, including providers.
It would ensure that late-term abortions outside the Abortion Act do not result in prison sentences for those involved.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has described the amendments as the “greatest threat to unborn children and their mothers since the Abortion Act”.
The amendments, if selected, will be debated and voted on by MPs during the Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill, which is set to take place June 17-18.