The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has described the proroguing of Parliament as both a “sad moment” and “a great victory”, referring to the effective legalisation of abortion up to birth at the same time as the failure of a law that would legalise medically assisted suicide.
The passage of the Crime and Policing Bill means, among other things, that women who abort their babies beyond the legal limit of 24 weeks will face no criminal sanction.
As the 24-week limit remains in place, doctors can only legally provide an abortion up to that point. However, should a woman take things into her own hands after this point using the pills-by-post service, she will face no penalty.
On the passage of the law, SPUC said in a statement, “This is a sad moment. There is now no law in England and Wales under which a woman can be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy, whatever the time, and whatever the reason.”
The news was also lamented by Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the Director of March For Life UK, "Yesterday the Crime and Policing Bill quietly received Royal Assent, meaning preborn children are now not even protected from their own mothers. A dark day in our history just slipped by - women can abort their child right up to birth in their home with no criminal consequence."
Despite this, SPUC said it would be running a “Fightback” campaign when the next parliamentary session begins in May.
There was some good news at the end of the parliamentary session, however, as SPUC welcomed the fact that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will not become law after it ran out of time.
“This is a great victory, and we should acknowledge that. All the contacting of MPs and peers and the tireless campaigning by so many people has completely shifted the narrative around assisted suicide, and ultimately lead to the downfall of the bill," it said.
However, SPUC acknowledged that just as they intend to keep campaigning to overturn abortion laws, those in favour of assisted suicide are doing the same. Since 2000 there have been at least 10 attempts to get some form of assisted suicide on the books and while some have got further than others, all have so far failed.
SPUC said, "Proponents of the bill are already threatening to make unprecedented use of an obscure parliamentary procedure (the Parliament Acts) to try and force through the same fatally flawed Bill in the next session without it passing through the House of Lords.
"The next ballot for private member's bills will take place in just a few weeks, and any MP who gets a high spot in that ballot will be under huge pressure to take on the bill.”
