Orders of the Day — Abortion (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:34 am on 13 July 1979.

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Photo of Mr David Ennals Mr David Ennals , Norwich North 11:34, 13 July 1979

How can the hon. Lady ask me that question? She knows that over many years of my life I have been involved in the welfare of the mentally handicapped and the mentally ill. Our task as a community is, of course, to give the love, support, care and protection to any children who are born handicapped. But we have a second responsibility, which is to minimise the number of those families that suffer from having a mentally or physically handicapped child. Those two responsibilities must go together.

I was trying to conclude my speech, and I shall not give way again. I asked who wanted the Bill. I want to say who does not want it. It is certainly not the medical profession. Of course there are isolated cases and of course the BMA and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists cannot speak for 100 per cent. of their membership. But they speak for the majority of their membership, and they speak from the depths of their experience. Is it the doctors or the nurses? We know from the Royal College of Nursing that it is not the nurses who want these changes. It is not the social workers, either, who had to accept some of the social consequences that existed before 1967. I fear that such consequences would again exist if we made these changes now. It is certainly not the general public who want these changes, if we can trust the conclusions of the Gallup poll.

Of course, one can twist and misinterpret the conclusions. I know that there has been some argument between the hon. Member for Bute and North Ayrshire and the Gallup poll. I shall therefore quote only what the poll itself showed. It showed that while 38 per cent. of the sample thought that abortion should be more difficult to obtain—