John Bercow stepped down as Commons Speaker yesterday

Yesterday saw John Bercow, the MP for Buckinghamshire, step down as Speaker of the House of Commons.

 "John Bercow has facilitated a radical pro-abortion agenda in the House of Commons," said SPUC Campaigns and Parliamentary Assistant Alithea Williams. "This man has done untold damage both to the unborn and their mothers, and to rules based law-making in this country."

"A great champion of women’s rights."

Mr Bercow’s tenure as speaker has been controversial for many reasons, but it is indisputable that he compromised the impartiality of his role through his blatant support for abortion. This was made clear in the tribute given to him yesterday by Diana Johnson, the pro-abortion Labour MP who has made repeated attempts to decriminalise abortion, and so further remove legal protection from unborn babies.

Ms Johnson hailed Mr Bercow as "a great champion of women’s rights." Although Ms Johnson meant her speech to praise Mr Bercow, the fact of him championing any political cause shows how he has subverted the role of Speaker, which is to be strictly impartial and non-partisan.

Before he became Speaker, Mr Bercow was known to support further expanding abortion laws, sponsoring or co-sponsoring several amendments on curtailing pro-life activity and imposing abortion on Northern Ireland.

For many years, his personal views did not seem to affect his work as Speaker, but this changed in June 2018, when Mr Bercow took the unprecedented step of granting Labour MP Stella Creasy an emergency debate on abortion law in Northern Ireland.

Imposing abortion on NI

Miss Williams said: "John Bercow bears a large part of the responsibility for the undemocratic, unconstitutional imposing of abortion on Northern Ireland.

"Emergency debates are usually reserved for urgent topical questions, such as wars or sudden crises, which cannot easily be raised any other way. Yet in an astonishing move by Mr Bercow, Stella Creasy was allowed to present, as an urgent matter, debating the repeal of sections of the Offences Against the Persons Act, which passed in 1861, and the status of abortion law in Northern Ireland, which had been constant since 1967.

"However, the most egregious breach of parliamentary procedure to further abortion extremism came just a few months ago. In July, against the advice of the parliamentary clerks who said it was out of scope of the bill, Mr Bercow selected an amendment tabled by Stella Creasy to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill. Despite the bill having nothing to do with abortion, and this complete jettisoning of parliamentary precedent causing unease among even pro-abortion MPs, this amendment imposed abortion on Northern Ireland."

Speaker must not be in thrall to abortion activists

Miss Williams concluded: "Usually, the personal views of the Commons Speaker do not matter, as the role is strictly non-partisan. It is vital that the next Speaker restores the proper functioning of the role, and does not subvert democratic procedures in the interest of extreme abortion activists."