A ballot of Private Members’ Bills in the House of Lords has resulted in the random selection of two pro-life bills being selected for debate. No pro-abortion or pro-assisted suicide proposals were drawn as a result of the ballot.
The two bills cover complications from abortions and the fate of babies who survive attempted abortion procedures.
The full details of the bills have yet to be revealed, but campaigners have noted that both aspects of abortion need addressing.
Right To Life UK have pointed out that there is a significant discrepancy between statistics on abortion complications from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the Abortion Notification System (ANS), the latter being based on data from abortion providers.
A review by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) found that from 2017-2021 the HES reported a complication rate of 4.06 per thousand abortions, a figure that was more than double the 1.52 figure from the ANS.
One gap identified by the review was the fact that abortion providers rarely recorded complications that affected a woman after being discharged following an abortion.
Right To Life also welcomed the selection of a bill that aims to protect babies who survive abortion.
The group pointed to a 2008 report that suggested 66 babies survived abortion attempts in the space of a single year. All were subsequently left to die, some of them taking over an hour to do so.
While it is unlikely that either of the proposed bills will become law, campaigners hope they will at least draw attention to the issue and so increase the chances of effective legislative action at a later date.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, said, “In this new parliamentary session, the Government needs to urgently introduce measures to ensure that abortion complications data is accurately collected and reliably reported moving forward.”
She added, "Babies born alive following an abortion should receive the same standard of care as any other baby born at the same gestation.
"Sadly, the fact that it is no longer illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, and at any point up to and during birth, means that late-term abortions outside a clinical setting are far more likely. Such babies need the full protection of the law."
