Campaigners vow to fight 'disastrous' abortion decriminalisation in Lords as Labour MPs force change through Commons after just two hours' debate

Daily Mail​

3 hours ago

Opponents of the decriminalisation of abortion have vowed to fight on to block it after MPs approved the biggest change in the law in more than five decades last night.
Almost 300 Labour MPs helped push through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that means women will will no longer face prosecution for aborting their own baby for any reason and at any stage up to birth.
The biggest change to the law concerning women's reproductive rights since the 1967 Abortion Act went through with a majority of 242 after most Lib Dem MPs also backed a proposal by Labour's Tonia Antoniazzi.
She told the Commons the current 'Victorian' abortion law in England and Wales is 'increasingly used against vulnerable women' and said her amendment was a 'once-in-a-generation' opportunity to change the law.
But the relaxation of the law was backed by just eight Tories, including one shadow minister, shadow education secretary Laura Trott.
The amendment still has to clear the House of Lords, and opponents vowed to try to get the 'hasty' move overturned, having been passed following just two hours of debate.
Lord Alton of Liverpool warned of 'potential real risks for the safety of women in particular who will be encouraged towards DIY abortions'.
'I expect that colleagues in the House of Lords will wish to scrutinise its provisions very closely and to amend it as necessary to make it safe,' he added.
The change, if passed unchanged by peers, will alter the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act - which outlawed abortion - meaning it would no longer apply to women aborting their own babies.
MPs and pro-choice activists welcomed the abortion vote and said it will finally put an end to the prosecution of vulnerable women for ending their own pregnancies.
Under Ms Antoniazzi's amendment women will no longer be prosecuted for an abortion when it relates to their own pregnancy, even if they abort their own baby without medical approval or after the current 24-week legal limit.
However it maintains criminal punishments for doctors who carry out abortions beyond the legal limit and abusive partners who end a woman's pregnancy without her consent.
Ms Antoniazzi listed examples of women who have recently been investigated or prosecuted for having an abortion, adding: 'Just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice. It is cruelty, and it has got to end.'
'Women affected are often acutely vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, girls under the age of 18 and women who have suffered miscarriage,' she said.
Six women have appeared in court in the last three years charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy - a crime with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment - while others remain under investigation.
But anti-abortion campaigners and MPs opposed to the reforms said the move allows women to end the life of their unborn child right up to birth, and for any reason, without facing repercussions.
Tory MP Rebecca Paul said she was 'disturbed' by the decriminalisation amendment, which will mean that 'fully developed babies up to term could be aborted by a woman with no consequences'.
'The reason we criminalise late term abortion is not about punishment. It's about protection,' she added. 'By providing a deterrent to such actions, we protect women.
'We protect them from trying to perform an abortion at home that is unsafe for them. We protect them from coercive partners and family members who may push them to end late term pregnancies.'