I am writing to you to urge you to contact Peers as they prepare to debate the Crime and Policing Bill. This legislation contains a dangerous clause about abortion that will remove some of the final protections for women and unborn babies here in the UK.
The Bill will be debated in the House of Lords over the next couple of weeks in Committee Stage: after it passes, it will then proceed to Report Stage, at which point there will be a vote.
If it proceeds unamended, Clause 191 will decriminalise abortion up to birth: this means that any women who perform their own late abortion after the legal limit of 24 weeks would no longer be considered to have committed an offence, irrespective of their reason. At this stage the baby is practising breathing and could survive outside the womb.
Shockingly, no impact assessment has been commissioned to examine the impact of this change, and last year, more than 1,000 doctors wrote to MPs to urge them to reject the clause, which was accepted in the Commons after a debate lasting just 46 minutes.
This comes in the context of a ‘pills by post’ scheme, which removed the requirement for in-person medical appointments before abortion pills are supplied. This has seen women taking abortion pills at later stages in their pregnancy, with dangerous consequences.
An amendment has also been tabled to restore in-person consultations about abortion pills, which we support. This would help to identify women who are being coerced, or who are in visible distress about their situation. We are also working to advocate for official protection against sex-selective abortions.
Please do write in – either over email or in handwritten form – to any of the Peers in the attached list, who we believe are likely to be receptive, to encourage them to speak out against these dangerous measures. We have also included some suggested bullet points to help shape your response, but please do try to put them into your own words as much as possible.
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.
Caroline Ansell
Director of Advocacy and Policy
Source: CARE
