A cross-party group of MPs and peers have called upon the government to delay the implantation of the controversial abortion clause in the Crime and Policing Bill until a full impact assessment can take place.
Clause 246 of the bill effectively legalises abortion up to the point of birth. While it does not change the current 24-week limit at which an abortion can legally take place, it does remove any legal sanction for a woman aborting their child after this point, for any reason.
While doctors will only be permitted to perform an abortion within the 24-week limit, there will be nothing preventing a woman taking matters into her own hands after this point. Campaigners have noted that the clause puts women safety in jeopardy, arguing that it encourages the 'back-street abortions' so often raised by pro-abortion campaigners.
In an open letter to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, and health minister Wes Streeting, the cross-party group called not just for an impact assessment, but fully updated guidance for police, prosecutors and doctors, all of which should be approved by both Houses of Parliament.
The letter said that as things stand, Clause 246 contains a number of ambiguities that should be clarified before it becomes law.
The signatories asked what should happen if medical professionals came to the aid of a woman suffering complications from a self-administered abortion and found that the baby was still alive, the question being whether they should they allow it to live or assist in completing the abortion.
Questions were also asked about how the police could tell the difference between infanticide and a very late-term abortion. The new clause, the signatories, noted, could lead to cases of infanticide going undetected.
Among the 79 signatories were figures from Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and Reform UK.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, “Bringing the abortion up to birth clause into force before a proper impact assessment has been produced, and before police, prosecutors and healthcare professionals have been given clear guidance on these and other serious issues, would be deeply irresponsible."
She added, “There are now almost 300,000 abortions every year in this country. Britain’s abortion time limit is already double that of the most common abortion limit among EU countries. And yet Parliament has just voted for even fewer safeguards for women and fewer protections for the unborn, even late in pregnancy.
“The law change would likely lead to the lives of many more women being endangered because of the risks involved with self-administered late-term abortions and also tragically lead to an increased number of viable babies’ lives being ended well beyond the 24-week abortion time limit and beyond the point at which they would be able to survive outside the womb."
