The campaign group against sex-selective abortion, Stop Gendercide, has raised concerns that pro-abortion amendments to a Government Bill would make sex-selective abortions legal in England and Wales.
Ahead of a vote on amendments introduced by Stella Creasy MP and Diana Johnson MP to the Criminal Justice Bill that will make extreme changes to abortion laws, Stop Gendercide have said that this proposed amendment “would likely result in a big increase in sex-selective abortions going down here within the UK”.
At present, the Government maintains that, under our current laws, abortion on the grounds of the sex of the newborn is unlawful since it is “not one in all the lawful grounds for termination of pregnancy” set out within the Abortion Act (which stipulates that abortion can only be performed under specific grounds).
Extreme abortion amendments would make sex-selective abortion legal within the UK
However, Diana Johnson’s amendment (NC1) would remove offences that make it illegal for a lady to perform her own abortion at any point all the way through to birth.
The explanatory note to Johnson’s amendment confirms that it applies at any gestation, which might mean a lady could perform her own abortion on sex-selective grounds throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
The amendment doesn’t outline circumstances by which it might proceed to be an offence for a lady to perform her own abortion – the changes to the law would apply throughout all nine months of pregnancy and wouldn’t exclude sex-selective abortions.
By amending the abortion law in this fashion, self-abortions will, de facto, grow to be possible as much as birth for any reason including abortions for sex-selective purposes, as women could mislead abortion providers about their gestational age (as within the case of Carla Foster, who pretended to be 7 weeks pregnant but took pills at 32-34 weeks gestation).
Under Stella Creasy’s amendment (NC40), the Abortion Act and the grounds under which abortion is permitted can be made redundant as much as 24 weeks, allowing abortion on demand, for any reason, including sex-selective abortion.
Sex-selective abortion can be available on-demand through to 24 weeks.
Evidence of sex-selective abortion within the UK
Stop Gendercide has drawn attention to evidence showing that some women are coming under pressure to have abortions on the premise of the sex of their unborn baby and that sex-selective abortions are already happening within the UK in some cases.
A 2018 BBC investigation found non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) were being widely used to find out a baby’s sex early in pregnancy, resulting in some women experiencing pressure to undergo sex-selective abortions. Prompted by this, the Labour Party urged a ban on NIPT getting used to find out the sex of unborn babies.
A 2017 report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (a Government advisory body) concluded that there was a “real possibility that permitting NIPT for sex determination within the UK could also be encouraging sex selection”. In their view, the danger was high enough to justify calling for a restriction on NIPT.
The report also found several web sites offering baby gender tests for about £170, and The Nuffield Council on Bioethics warned that the increasingly widespread private NIPT testing within the UK could lead on to the country becoming a haven for “sex-selective” abortions.
Furthermore, an undercover Telegraph investigation revealed that doctors were agreeing to offer sex-selective abortions, “no questions asked” and uncovered that sex-selective abortions were being offered within the UK, including by a health care provider who worked each privately and for the NHS.
A report published by the Department of Health concerning sex-selective abortion outlined personal testimonies from women coerced right into a sex-selective abortion by a 3rd party.
There can also be evidence that sex-selective abortion has been a big issue in Canada following the decriminalisation of abortion there. An article within the Canadian Medical Association Journal explains that “easy accessibility to abortion and advances in prenatal sex determination have combined to make Canada a haven for fogeys who would terminate female fetuses in favour of getting sons”.
Sex-selective abortions risk resulting in profound social and demographic problems. Estimates suggest there are greater than 140 million “missing” women and girls across the globe, with 63 million “missing” in India alone, in most part resulting from sex-selective abortion and postnatal sex-selection infanticide.
According to a scholarly article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, “[i]n China, son preference and sex-selective abortion have led to 32 million excess males under the age of 20 years”.
Devi Shah, spokesperson for the Stop Gendercide campaign, said “It’s a heartbreaking reality that many ladies here within the UK come under pressure to have a termination from their partners and members of the family just because they predict a lady”.
“If sex-selective abortion is made legal, it would make it rather more difficult for ladies to refuse pressure from their families to hunt a sex-selective abortion”.
“The legalisation of sex-selective abortion, combined with the private availability of early NIPT tests for gender, would likely result in a big increase in sex-selective abortions going down here within the UK”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said, “There is amazingly widespread opposition to sex-selective abortion, the first victims of that are unborn baby girls. Polling shows that 91% of girls and 89% of the final population agree that gender-selective abortion ought to be explicitly banned by the law.
“It is deeply sad that ideologues like Stella Creasy and Diana Johnson, within the zeal to expand access to abortion in any respect costs, are indifferent to the plight of girls and their unborn baby girls who will likely be increasingly targeted if their extreme amendments, which enable abortion on the grounds of sex, are successful.
“It’s really vital that as many individuals as possible email their MPs alerting them to those extreme amendments that allow sex-selective abortion and urge their MPs to vote against them.”
