Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Official portrait of Stella Creasy MP
An amendment proposed by Labour MP Stella Creasy, if passed, will decriminalise abortion up to birth and abandon women and their unborn babies to coercion from abusive partners, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has warned.
Tabled by Stella Creasy, amendment NC17 to the Crime and Policing Bill seeks to decriminalise abortion by repealing several provisions of criminal law.
The amendment directs the Secretary of State to implement recommendations from the 2018 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) report, which advised that there should be no criminal penalties for women and healthcare providers involved in abortions.
However, SPUC has warned that the move would effectively legalise abortion up to birth and undermine vital protections for unborn children and vulnerable women.
“No investigation may be carried out, and no criminal proceedings may be brought or continued”, NC17 states. While the 24-week abortion limit would remain, it would be unenforceable.
“This would in effect mean full decriminalisation of abortion, up to birth, for any reason… including the sex of the baby”, SPUC has warned.
“The amendment would remove not just the possibility of a custodial sentence, but of any prosecution, or even investigation” when protections for women and their unborn children are breached, the Society continued.
SPUC also pointed out that CEDAW recommendations are non-binding and do not constitute international law.
Creasy’s NC17 amendment would also make prosecutions of abusive partners very difficult.
For example, if NC17 had been passed before the trial of Stuart Worby – who was jailed for giving his partner abortion pills without her knowledge and killing her unborn baby – he might not have been prosecuted at all.
The amendment could also make it difficult to prosecute persons involved in the concealment of birth and potential abortion, including infanticide during the birth.
Another amendment tabled by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi seeks to remove women from “criminal law related to abortion”, meaning that “no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy”.
If passed, abortion (including all abortions up to birth in any circumstances) would no longer be criminalised under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 or the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. The amendment is reportedly supported by over 50 cross-party pro-abortion MPs.
SPUC is mobilising its vast grassroots network to defeat the greatest threat to unborn babies in decades.
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