While there is no explicit mention of abortion, the King’s Speech has set out the Government’s intentions to introduce bills that could be hijacked to allow abortion to be made legal up to birth.
In his speech earlier today as part of an Oral statement to Parliament, the King outlined the new Government’s intention to introduce legislation to reduce violent crime, especially crime against women and girls. The Crime and Policing Bill, as explained by a Government briefing, will “strengthen community policing, give the police greater powers to deal with anti social behaviour”.
However, given past attempts to change the abortion law, there is a risk that, if abortion amendments are allowed to this Bill, some MPs will attempt to hijack this Bill by adding extreme abortion amendments, which may result in abortion being made legal up to birth. Diana Johnson MP and Stella Creasy MP in particular have a history of attempting to make extreme changes to the abortion law of England and Wales by introducing amendments to similar Bills.
A history of abortion extremism
Earlier this year, Diana Johnson MP, tabled an amendment (NC1) to the Conservative Government’s Criminal Justice Bill that would have removed offences that make it illegal for a woman to perform her own abortion at any point right through to birth. The explanatory note to New Clause 1 confirmed that it would apply at any gestation, meaning a woman could perform her own abortion, including on sex-selective grounds, throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
Stella Creasy introduced a similar amendment (NC40) to the same Government Bill that would have removed key deterrents against performing an abortion at any point right through to birth.
These amendments would have likely led to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women. They would also have led to an increased number of viable babies’ lives being ended well beyond the 24-week abortion time limit and beyond the point at which they would be able to survive outside the womb.
Similarly, in 2021, Johnson also attempted to hijack the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill with an amendment that would have left England and Wales with one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world. Her amendment, if successful, would have left no abortion law regulating abortion up until birth, thereby making abortion legal on demand, for any reason up until birth, including sex-selective abortion.
Two-child benefit cap
While the King announced the introduction of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, the removal of the two-child benefit cap was noticeably absent from the description of the Bill. The Prime Minister remains under pressure from campaigners within his own party to remove this cap. Likewise, MPs from other parties have already begun to question why removing the cap was not included in the King’s speech.
According to reports, the Labour Party is insisting that the Government does not have enough money to remove the cap.
There is evidence that the benefit cap is having some influence on some women’s decision to have an abortion.
In 2020, a survey found that 59% of respondents said that they were aware of the two-child limit prior to having an abortion. Of those in receipt of tax credits or universal credit, and therefore most likely to be affected by the two-child benefit cap, 57% “said that the policy was important in their decision-making around whether or not to continue the pregnancy”.
In the survey conducted by the abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, one respondent said “[The two-child limit] was a big factor for me. My husband has lost his job so we are on a very tight budget and when we looked at our finances we realised we couldn’t afford to have another baby”.
While another woman said “If there was no two-child limit I would have kept the baby, but I couldn’t afford to feed and clothe it… I’ve really struggled to come to terms with [my decision]”.
In 2020 the Guardian reported that from 2016 to 2019, the number of women with two or more children having an abortion has risen by 16.4%, while for women with no existing children or one existing child, the numbers increased by 10.3% and 7% respectively. The two-child policy was introduced in 2017.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced in order to cut the state welfare bill. In real terms, the loss of benefits is worth £2,900 per child per year. 243,000 families had been impacted by the two-child limit by April 2020, according to Government data.
While there is no mention of a Bill to make assisted suicide legal in the speech, the Prime Minister has reiterated his commitment to have a vote on the matter since winning the General Election earlier this month.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “While there is no explicit mention of abortion or assisted suicide in the King’s speech, and the details of the proposed legislation have not yet been released, there is a serious risk that MPs supportive of extreme abortion laws will seek to make amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill proposed by this Government”.
