The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury has confirmed she will be joining a key vote on abortion in the House of Lords this Wednesday after there was backlash over the suggestion she might be absent due to a planned pilgrimage.
Archbishop Sarah Mullally came under pressure to confirm whether she would be at Parliament for the vote on the Crime and Policing Bill after announcing that she would embark on a six-day pilgrimage to Canterbury on Tuesday.
She faced fierce criticism from pro-life campaigners including the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and members of her own Church who feared that she would be absent from the vote on Wednesday evening.
SPUC said it would have been a "damning indictment on Sarah Mullally personally, and the Church of England hierarchy more generally" if she had failed to attend. It is calling on the Archbishop and bishops to be as vocal against extreme abortion measures as they have been against Kim Leadbeater's bill to legalise assisted suicide.
A spokesperson for Lambeth Palace has confirmed that she will be there for the vote and that her pilgrimage will not be affected.
"The Archbishop will be in the House of Lords on Wednesday to vote on the proposed amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. It will not affect the pilgrimage or its route, which starts this afternoon," they said.
The House of Lords is voting on amendments to the UK government’s Crime and Policing Bill, specifically a controversial abortion reform clause.
At the centre of the clause is a proposal to decriminalise abortion at any stage of the pregnancy for women in England and Wales.
MPs in the House of Commons voted last year in favour of changing the current legal framework so that a woman would no longer be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy, even if it occurred after the 24-week legal limit.
Opponents of the change say it effectively legalises abortion up to birth for any reason.
Dr Calum Miller, a medical doctor and ethicist, has been vocal in calling on Church of England bishops to attend Wednesday's vote.
He said it was "good news" that Archbishop Mullally plans to attend, while urging other bishops to follow suit.
Archbishop Mullally's 140km-pilgrimage starts from St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Tuesday afternoon. It is part of her spiritual preparation before officially commencing her public ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury with her installation service at Canterbury Cathedral on 25 March.
The Archbishop's stance on abortion has come under scrutiny since her appointment as Justin Welby's successor after she said in the past that she would describe herself more as “pro-choice rather than pro-life”.
She clarified her position in comments to Church Times last October.
“I am aware that I have in the past been labelled as ‘pro-choice’ — perhaps because of my previous career — but this is a complex debate, and I don’t think my or others’ views can be so simply categorised," she said.
“I support the Church of England’s principled opposition to abortion, which comes with a recognition that there can be strictly limited conditions under which abortion may be preferable to any available alternatives.
“Above all else, women facing unwanted pregnancies require compassion and care, and a path that supports them. They are confronted with the hardest of choices, and they must be supported.”
