The Telegraph has just broken the news that a group of female members of the House of Lords, led by Baroness Monckton, are launching a major bid to overturn the abortion up to birth clause (191) in the Crime and Policing Bill.
They will table an amendment to the Bill ahead of Committee Stage, which, if successful, will remove the abortion up to birth clause from the Bill.
Additionally, a group of Peers, led by Baroness Stroud, are going to be tabling another really important amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, to reinstate in-person consultations with a medical professional prior to an abortion taking place at home.
This amendment would help protect women and babies from dangerous late-term home abortions. If it becomes law, it will save the lives of many babies and protect women by providing the best possible opportunity to assess a pregnant woman’s health and risk of coercion.
Over 1,000 medical professionals have called on Parliament to oppose the law change proposed by the abortion up to birth clause (191) and to instead reinstate in-person consultations, as proposed by Baroness Stroud’s amendment.
Polling from Whitestone Insight that we commissioned, which has been published in The Telegraph, shows that more than half of the general public agree that it should remain the case that a woman is breaking the law if she has an abortion of a healthy baby after the current 24-week legal time limit up until birth. Only 16% disagreed.
Similarly, polling shows widespread public support for the law change proposed by Baroness Stroud’s amendment, with two-thirds of women supporting the reinstatement of in-person appointments and only 4% in favour of the status quo.
If you would like to find out more about these amendments and the very strong case for change in both these areas, we have just put out a press release to media outlets, which has the full details.
You can access that press release by clicking here, and The Telegraph exclusive breaking the news can be viewed by clicking here.
STRONG MAJORITY SPEAK IN OPPOSITION
If you didn’t get a chance to watch Second Reading of the Crime and Policing Bill today, we just wanted to also update you on how that went.
A large number of Peers spoke in opposition to the abortion up to birth clause and in support of reinstating in-person consultations, as proposed by Baroness Stroud’s amendment.
Our Public Affairs team has just completed their analysis of the speeches today – of the 20 Peers who took a position on the abortion up to birth clause in the Bill, 13 (65%) spoke in opposition and 7 (35%) spoke in support of the law change proposed by that clause.
Almost twice as many Peers spoke in opposition to the abortion up to birth clause compared with those who supported it.
Throughout the day, our team have been sharing video clips of the most important speeches, along with live commentary, on our X account, which you can view here. I have posted some of the key video highlights on X here.
This is a great start to this phase of the campaign, but there is a great deal of work to do to build support for Baroness Monckton and Baroness Stroud’s amendments.