Last week, Labour MP Stella Creasy announced that she was tabling an amendment that would decriminalise abortion up to twenty-four weeks. She responded angrily on social media to claims that she was in favour of abortion up to birth.

No prison sentence for infantacide

The text of the amendment, new clause 40, has now been published on the Parliament website. As SPUC’s Public Policy Manager Alithea Williams explains, it is even more extreme than critics feared. 

“One clause of the amendment does indeed explicitly decriminalise abortion up to twenty-four weeks,” Miss Williams said. “However, that’s not all that’s in there. In also states that ‘No custodial sentence may be imposed’ on a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy under any of the pieces of legislation relating to abortion. As with Diana Johnson’s amendment, this would mean no prison sentences for any abortion at any stage of pregnancy, if the woman carries out herself.”

“And it gets worse,” Miss Williams went on. “This isn’t just about removing prison time, as the next section of the amendment states that no criminal proceedings at all may be brought against a woman or ‘or a medical professional who acted in good faith and with honest belief that the woman they assisted gave them a genuine account except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions, who must personally exercise any function of giving consent’. This raises the bar of prosecuting not just women, but even abortionists for abortions after 24 weeks impossibly high. So a woman who aborted her baby at say 30 weeks could never be sentenced to jail time, and could only be given community service if the Director for Public Prosecutions himself stepped in. He would also have to personally intervene to bring proceedings against a doctor who performed at abortion at this stage.”

Advancing abortion extremism

Ms Williams continued: "Finally, the relevant pieces of legislation that NC 40 refers to include not just The Infant Life Preservation Act 1929 and sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, but section 60 of the latter Act. Section 60 is about concealing the death of a baby, and is usually used in cases of infanticide. The Government minister warned against the consequences of interfering with section 60 at Committee Stage, so it is quite astonishing that she has brought it back again.

"Does Ms Creasy really believe that infanticide should never result in jail time and should require the DPP to step in to even impose a lesser sentence?”