Lord, have mercy! The House of Lords has voted to allow women in England and Wales to kill their unborn babies at any stage of pregnancy without sanction.
During a debate on the Crime and Policing Bill, Peers voted by 185 votes to 148 to reject Baroness Monckton’s amendment to remove Antonia Antoniazzi MP’s controversial Clause 208 which decriminalises abortion up to birth for the mother.
They also voted to reject an amendment by Baroness Stroud to reinstate in-person consultations with a doctor in order to receive abortion pills by 191 votes to 119. A return to such appointments, removed during lockdown, would have better protected against women taking the pills after the ten-week limit which they are designed for.
In a dignified speech, Baroness Monckton was clear: “Clause 208 would allow mothers to self-administer the abortion of their unborn child for any reason, at any stage of pregnancy, right up to full term. This is not just its consequential effect; it is its intended effect.
“The Clause states: ‘For the purposes of the law relating to abortion, no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.’ The unborn child, in many cases more developed than those successfully looked after in premature baby units, would have no legal protection.”
She added that the clause “endangers women” by moving late-term abortions away from a clinical setting.
Abortion pills are not supposed to be used beyond very early stages, but the current ‘pills-by-post’ scheme allows women easy access to the drugs regardless of their child’s gestational age.