Christian advocacy group CARE has urged people to contact members of the House of Lords and to pray in a bid to prevent “dangerous” legislation that will effectively allow abortion up to the point of birth.
Over the next couple of weeks the House of Lords will be debating the Crime and Policing Bill. The Bill took on greater significance last year when an amendment that removes any criminal sanctions for abortion was passed by MPs.
Critics have questioned whether a bill that ostensibly is supposed to be about keeping Britain’s streets safe and preventing terrorism, is the right medium for a debate on the limits of abortion.
It has also been argued that by removing all criminal sanction, the bill would incentivise women to perform their own abortions beyond the current 24 week legal limit. After years of warning about the horrors of “back street abortions”, critics say pro-abortion advocates may in fact bring the nation back to those days.
As a case in point, the “pills by post” scheme has already been criticised due to the abuses that can occur when there is little or no medical oversight over an abortion. Introduced during Covid, the scheme allows women to obtain abortion pills remotely and without the need for an in-person medical assessment.
In at least one case, a woman obtained and took the pills at a very late stage in her pregnancy, tragically ending the life of her unborn baby and putting herself at risk as well as breaking the law. In another case a man was sent to jail after secretly spiking his pregnant girlfriend’s drink with abortion pills. She lost what would have been her first baby and has since been unable to conceive again.
CARE pointed out that no impact assessment into the effects of the change has been conducted and that MPs passed this highly contentious amendment after just 46 minutes of debate.
The group said it was supporting a proposed amendment that would restore the requirement that those seeking abortion pills have an in-person medical consultation. This, they said, would help identify cases where women are being coerced or are in “visible distress”.
Caroline Ansell, CARE’s director of advocacy and policy, asked supporters to write to members of the House of Lords debating the issue and “to encourage them to speak out against these dangerous measures".
"And let us continue to pray that God would have mercy on our nation, as we strive to create a society where the voiceless are advocated for and the powerless are protected," she added.
