Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has tabled an amendment ahead of the Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill that its critics fear could see abortion up to birth being permitted in the UK.
The amendment is being described as “the biggest threat to unborn children since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967”, says Right To Life UK.<br><br>It claims the amendment would change the law so it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, and at any point up to and during birth. <br><br>It adds that the change to the law would apply throughout all nine months of pregnancy and would not exclude sex-selective abortions.<br><br>This would likely lead, Right to Life UK warns, to a tragic rise in the number of babies’ lives being ended through late-term abortions carried out at home.
Records collected by the UK's largest abortion services have found at least 100 women have been investigated for having an abortion in the last five years, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dqp3dep48o"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>BBC</em>.
It says that of those, six have appeared in court according to data collected by British Pregnancy Advisory Group (Bpas), National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service (NUPAS) and MSI abortion services.
"There is simply no world in which prosecuting a vulnerable woman who may have experienced a medical complication, miscarriage or stillbirth is the right course of action," Antoniazzi said when she tabled her amendment before Parliament on 13 May.
She said her amendment is "tightly drawn – not changing anything about provision of abortion care, the time limit, the right to conscientious objection or any other aspects of abortion law".
She added: "I am confident that, when Parliament has the opportunity to vote on these proposals, my colleagues will agree that never again should a woman be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy in England and Wales."<br><br>Right to Life UK claims that pro-abortion campaigners are ”flooding MPs’ inboxes, urging them to back this extreme change”.
As a result, it has launched a nationwide "emergency" <em>No to Abortion Up to Birth</em> campaign, focused “entirely on stopping this attempt to hijack the Crime and Policing Bill”. <br><br>The campaign website includes an <a href="https://righttolife.org.uk/uptobirth"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">online tool</mark></a> that allows people to email their relevant MPs and ask them to vote “No” to the abortion-up-to-birth amendment put forward by Antoniazzi.
<em>Photo: Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi (screenshot from bbc.co.uk).</em><br><br><br><br><br>
.jpg)
