Inset image – Wikimedia Commons: Official portrait of Stella Creasy MP
An online Daily Express poll shows that over three-quarters of respondents do not want late-term abortion to be legalised in the UK. The survey comes ahead of two abortion decriminalisation amendments, to be voted on by MPs tomorrow.
The poll asked: “Should late-term abortions be legalised in UK?”
As of 12pm on 11 June, 78 per cent of respondents to the Daily Express poll said that late-term abortion should not be legalised in the UK.
19 per cent said that it should be legalised, while 3 per cent said they don’t know.
A separate poll, commissioned by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), found that 67 per cent of the British public agree with the statement, “Abortion is a matter of life and death, and it is therefore appropriate that the criminal law provides a clear boundary to protect everyone involved.”
Only 14 per cent of respondents said that unborn babies should have no legal protection.
Michael Robinson, Executive Director at SPUC, said that the Society’s poll “clearly shows that the British public doesn’t support abortion on demand and rejects the deeply flawed arguments from the abortion lobby that it should be removed from the criminal law”.
Two abortion decriminalisation amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill are set to be debated and voted on by MPs on 17 June and 18 June.
MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s NC1 amendment seeks to decriminalise abortion by removing women from the criminal law related to abortion. This would mean that a woman who induced her abortion at home using pills (or any other method) at any stage of pregnancy, including just before natural birth, would not commit a crime.
NC20, tabled by MP Stella Creasy, would remove offences in the Abortion Act, meaning that abortion could be carried out for any reason, including the sex of the baby. There would also be no way to bring an abusive partner who causes the death of an unborn baby to justice.
SPUC is urging supporters and all other concerned citizens not wanting to see abortion up to birth to lobby their MP and ask them to oppose and vote against new clauses 1 and 20 to the Crime and Policing Bill.
More information on the amendments and how to oppose them can be found here. Briefings on NC1 and NC20 can be found here, and here, respectively.
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