Orders of the Day — Unborn Children (Protection) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:46 am on 15 February 1985.

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Photo of Clare Short Clare Short , Birmingham, Ladywood 10:46, 15 February 1985

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. I do not wish to detain the House, but I wish to amplify the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Ms. Richardson). Women understand these matters in a way that men do not, because they deal with them in their daily life. They menstruate, conceive or do not conceive, worry about whether they will have children, sometimes have to face the question whether to have a abortion, and so on. Women are more familiar with the subject, whereas men set it up as a set of moral principles and logical constructs. Women know that thousands of conceptuses are wasted by nature. It is not the case that each conceptus becomes a perfectly formed human being. Nature has organised fertility wastefully. Conceptuses are destroyed month by month, through miscarriages, the use of the coil and for all sorts of reasons. Men must face that.

The Bill should be opposed, and the Government should introduce comprehensive legislation which will set up the licensing authority which the Warnock report recommends. I emphasise my point that the public have been misled about the development of the techniques. I appeal to the House not to disappoint all the infertile women and couples who desperately want children and want the techniques to be improved. More important, I appeal to the House not to disappoint the couples who know that they are carrying a genetic defect and want to have whole and healthy children, because that is what the House will do if it passes the Bill.