Crossbench peer Lord Alton has published the speech he “would have made” had he been capable of attend last week’s Lords debate on abortion.
The Lords were debating an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that removes criminal sanctions for abortion. Effectively it might legalise abortion as much as the purpose of birth.
Lord Alton called the proposal a “grotesque measure” and denounced the undeniable fact that it passed the House of Commons after just 46 minutes of debate as “deeply shocking”.
In his planned speech, Lord Alton noted that British abortion law is already “way more extreme than a lot of the western world” – even without the proposed change. He also noted that the Bill in query is ostensibly presupposed to be about crime, terrorism and anti-social behaviour, but had effectively been hijacked into becoming a pro-abortion vehicle.
“Hijacking an unrelated Bill to attempt to force through what could be the biggest change to abortion law on this country for the reason that Abortion Act in 1967 is not any method to make law,” he said.
“The unintended consequences of this abortion as much as birth amendment would mean that somewhat than protecting women, they might be placed at greater risk – to say nothing of the implications for unborn babies, even so very late in pregnancy.”
At present British law permits abortion as much as 24 weeks right into a pregnancy, while the common within the European Union is 12 weeks. Around 1 / 4 of one million babies are aborted every yr at present and it’s estimated that nearly 11 million babies have been terminated for the reason that passage of the Abortion Act in 1967.
Lord Alton, together with other opponents of the bill, noted that the entire decriminalisation of abortion would likely put women at greater danger, particularly in the event that they opted to perform an at-home abortion of a baby within the late stages of pregnancy.
“Imagine the distress, practicalities, and dehumanisation of those self-administered procedures,” he said.
The peer spoke out against the controversial “pills by post” scheme and said he could be supporting an amendment that may restore the requirement of an in-person consultation before granting an abortion. The requirement was allotted with throughout the Covid lockdowns.
At the conclusion of his planned speech, Lord Alton said, “If we fail to boost our voices now and fail to evoke the conscience of the nation, each women and unborn babies can be the victims. Both lives matter and we must always unhesitatingly say so.
“We are a civilised country – not a barbaric one. Introducing abortion as much as birth should not have any place in a civilised society. It is abhorrent.”
 Crossbench peer Lord Alton has published the speech he “would have made” had he been capable of attend last week’s Lords debate on...){kind=link}