Ask your MP to vote NO to the Antoniazzi abortion up to birth amendment

If this amendment becomes law, it would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women. 

The proposed change to the law would also lead 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.

The amendment is more extreme than an amendment to make changes to abortion legislation proposed by Diana Johnson MP in 2024 (NC1 to the Criminal Justice Bill).

The Antoniazzi amendment goes further than the Johnson amendment in that it is not limited in its application to the three pieces of legislation that the Johnson amendment applied to. 

The Antoniazzi amendment applies to all current and future legislation “related to abortion”.

By amending the abortion law in this way, self-abortions will, de facto, become possible up to birth for any reason including abortions for sex-selective purposes, as women could mislead abortion providers about their gestational age (as in the case of Carla Foster, who pretended to be 7 weeks pregnant but took pills at 32-34 weeks gestation).

This amendment would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women. 

The proposed law change would also likely lead 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.

Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment (NC1) would remove offences that make it illegal for a woman to perform her own abortion at any point right through to birth.

The amendment does not outline circumstances in which it would continue to be an offence for a woman to perform her own abortion – the changes to the law would apply throughout all nine months of pregnancy and would not exclude sex-selective abortions.

The polling also showed that 89% of the general population oppose sex-selective abortion. 

Polling published by the Daily 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.

A separate poll from Ipsos released in August 2023 shows that only 36% of the British population think abortion should be legal during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. This is a significant decrease in support for abortion up to 20 weeks from the previous year, conducted by the same polling organisation, where 40% of people in Great Britain thought abortion should be legal in the first 20 weeks.

They go on to highlight that extreme changes to the law would also likely lead to serious risks to women’s health because of the dangers involved with self-administered late abortions.

“The Government’s own recent review of abortion complications in England from 2017 to 2021 found that the complication rate for medical abortions that happen in a clinical setting is 160 times higher for abortions at 20 weeks and over compared with medical abortions under 10 weeks. The complication rate is likely to be far higher for women performing their own abortions at home without medical supervision well beyond the current 24-week time limit”.

They have then urged Parliament to reintroduce in-person appointments rather than making the situation worse by introducing extreme changes to abortion legislation.

“We also urge Parliament to restore in-person appointments before women may be prescribed abortion pills in order to accurately assess their gestational age and health. This is an important part of safeguarding (to protect against coerced abortion) and would enable healthcare professionals to ensure it is both medically and legally appropriate for a woman to be prescribed abortion pills”.

Among the 27 countries that are member states of the European Union, three have a time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds at 10 weeks, one country at 11 weeks, 15 countries at 12 weeks, 3 countries at 14 weeks and two countries only allow abortion in very limited circumstances. 

Countries with 12-week limits for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds include Germany, Italy and Belgium as well as the more “liberal” Nordic countries Denmark and Finland. Even Sweden has a time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds that is much lower than the United Kingdom at 18 weeks.

We have included some of this coverage below:

• The Times – Janice Turner – I’ve always been pro-choice but this is too far
• The Telegraph – Isabel Oakeshott – It would be monstrous to decriminalise abortion. I speak from experience
• The Spectator – Melanie McDonagh – Why the public doesn’t support decriminalising abortion
• Daily Mail – Nadine Dorries – The moment I saw an aborted foetus gasping for breath scarred me for life. Extending ‘pills by post’ abortion right up to birth would be a terrible mistake
• The Spectator – Lara Prendergast – The abortion debate returns 
• The Telegraph – Miriam Cates – ‘Sacrificing Criminal Justice Bill is worth it to protect unborn children’
• The Critic – Georgia L Gilholy – ‘Is Britain on course for abortion up to birth?’
• The Spectator – Melanie McDonagh – Why are doctors being threatened for reporting late-term abortions? 

• Conservative Home – Stewart Jackson – The Government must take a stand against abortion up to birth
• The Express – Lois McLatchie – ‘Are we really pro-any-choice when it comes to abortion?’
• Conservative Home – Georgia L Gilholy – ‘The Government must whip against extreme abortion amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill’

• The Mail – ‘Doctors urge MPs not to go ahead with plans to decriminalise late abortions’
• The Mail – Rebel Tories threaten to scupper flagship crime Bill if it leads to abortion being decriminalised
• The Telegraph – Decriminalising abortion will fuel late-term DIY procedures, warns Miriam Cates

• The Telegraph – Decriminalising abortion opposed by more than half the public, poll finds

Carla Lockhart, MP for Upper Bann, introduced an Early Day Motion (EDM) to reinstate in-person appointments before a medical abortion as an important safeguard for the safety of women and to help prevent abortion coercion.

In an apparent reference to the tragic case of Carla Foster who had an illegal abortion at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation, the EDM noted that “recent illegal late-term abortions of viable unborn babies would not have been able to occur had in-person appointments to accurately assess gestational age been required”.

The EDM was launched in support of the At Home Early Medical Abortion (Review) Bill, which was tabled in the House of Lords. The Bill specifically required the Government to review whether in-person medical appointments, during which the gestational age of the pregnancy can be accurately determined before an at-home abortion occurs, should be reinstated.