Opportunistic activists are ramping up efforts to exploit the COVID-19 crisis in a bid to introduce more extreme abortion legislation.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service is rallying its supporters and working with pro-abortion MPs in an attempt to hijack the Coronavirus Bill with an amendment to legalise dangerous ‘telemedicine’ terminations.
The change in legislation would allow ‘DIY’ abortions where terminations would be performed at home by women on themselves without a doctor or other medical professional present.
Yesterday, the Government announced that it would temporarily allow ‘DIY’ abortions. The very substantial change was announced in a now-deleted tweet on Twitter without any public consultation, Parliamentary scrutiny or debate.
However, late last night the Government stated that its initial announcement was an administrative error and that there will be no changes to abortion regulations. Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the error today, in the House of Commons, as the Bill safely proceeded to the House of Lords.
The abortion lobby, who have taken to Twitter in fury about the decision, is now seeking to introduce extreme legislation changes through other means such as an amendment to the Bill in the House of Lords. They want supporters to contact MPs asking them to put pressure on the Government to reduce the number of doctors who sign off on a termination from two to one and to allow midwives and nurses to also sign off on terminations.
Pro-life campaigners have also been contacting their MPs asking them to resist any calls to exploit the current crisis to remove safeguards in abortion legislation and introduce further extreme abortion legislation.
Following the announcement yesterday, Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said:
“We welcome the news that this extreme change to the law is not going ahead and that the announcement was an administrative error.
“The Department of Health and Social Care is working tirelessly at the moment so it is understandable that human errors like this are made.
“If the policy had gone ahead, it would have been an incredibly opportunistic and tragic change pushed by the abortion lobby to take advantage of this crisis. It would have been the most significant policy change to the practice of Abortion since 1967 and would have happened entirely by the back-door – without any Parliamentary scrutiny or public consultation. For a Government who won the recent election on the premise of giving “Parliament ‘back control’, undermining of Parliament’s role in our democracy would have been an attack on Parliamentary sovereignty: a key component of our democratic system
“Most worryingly, the policy change would have also placed women at risk. The removal of any direct medical supervision overseeing the use of both abortion pills could see a rise of complications experienced by women, thus putting more strain on our NHS – having the opposite of the effect intended by drawing doctors away from the frontlines of fighting the coronavirus crisis.”
