MPs set to approve biggest change to UK abortion law in 50 years decriminalising termination at any point before birth

Daily Mail​

4 hours ago

MPs will vote on decriminalising abortion tomorrow with the Commons expected to back the biggest change to abortion law in Britain for half a century.
If approved by MPs women would no longer face prosecution if they aborted their own baby based on its sex, after the legal limit of 24 weeks, or without approval from doctors.
The vote is shaping up to be fractious with two Labour MPs who are both seeking to decriminalise abortion competing to have amendments that will radically alter the law selected.
Currently abortion is a criminal offence in England and Wales unless it takes place before 24 weeks into a pregnancy and with the approval of doctors. There are limited circumstances allowing a woman to access an abortion after 24 weeks, including when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.
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.
But the two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill that will be debated and voted on by MPs tomorrow would put an end to this. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is expected to select just one of the two amendments, leaving the MPs behind them competing to show who had the most support tonight.
One of the amendments, from Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, is seeking to decriminalise abortion for women 'acting in relation to her own pregnancy'.
This legislation would amend the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act - which outlaws abortion - meaning it would no longer apply to women aborting their own babies.
However Ms Antoniazzi's amendment would maintain sections that allow criminal prosecutions for doctors who carry out abortions beyond the current 24-week legal limit or abusive partners who end a woman's pregnancy without her consent.
A second amendment, from Labour MP Stella Creasy, would also repeal the sections of the 1861 Act, decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks, and ensure that late-term abortions did not result in prison sentences.
However Ms Creasy's amendment would go further still and make it a human right for women to access abortion so that parliament could not, in future, roll back abortion rights as has happened in other countries.
Crucially, this amendment would also repeal certain abortion-related criminal laws, meaning that medical professionals who assisted with an abortion would not face prosecution either.
Sir Lindsay is only expected to select one of the two amendments and as Ms Antoniazzi's had more than 170 backers last night - compared to over 110 for Ms Creasy's - it is expected that hers will be debated and voted on by MPs on Tuesday.
It comes as a legal opinion commissioned by Tory veteran Edward Leigh said that if either amendment becomes law women will be able to abort their pregnancies for any reason at any point up to birth without facing prosecution.
The legal opinion by leading criminal barrister Stephen Rose KC - seen by the Mail - said that Ms Antoniazzi's amendment would mean that it would no longer be illegal for a woman to carry out her own abortion 'at home, for any reason, at any gestation, up to birth'.
But Mr Rose KC said this amendment would still retain criminal prosecution for medical professionals who assisted in an abortion beyond the current legal limit.
However he said that Ms Creasy's amendment would go further, rendering the 24-week time limit 'obsolete', and would mean that medical practitioners who helped with an illegal abortion would only face disciplinary proceedings through their professional body rather than prosecution.
The legal opinion said it would also effectively allow abortions to be carried out based on the sex of the foetus, adding: 'The effect of the amendment is that a woman who terminated her pregnancy solely on the basis that she believed the child to be female would face no criminal sanction in connection with that reason, or at all.'