Abortion (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:57 am on 22 January 1988.

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Photo of Clare Short Clare Short , Birmingham, Ladywood 11:57, 22 January 1988

I am making the point I wish to make—the hon. Gentleman can make his.

I am perplexed by this. The underlying reason is that the new Right in America goes around bombing abortion clinics, photographing women who go there for abortions and sending the photographs to their neighbours. That is the kind of crude behaviour that comes from the new Right. The growing new Right in Britain is saying that women should stay at home and bear children and care for elderly and disabled people. They are not in favour of public expenditure; they want to push women back into a traditional role and deprive them of the freedom to control their lives—[Interruption.] Hon. Members may laugh. They always laugh and sneer when we talk about the status of women and their freedom. The behaviour of hon. Members is absolutely consistent.

I appeal to anyone who is in favour of preventing late abortions not to vote for the Bill. If the sponsor of the Bill wanted a 24-week limit with exceptions and wanted to prevent late abortions beyond that limit, he would have brought in a different Bill. There is much that we can do. We could have, as many other countries have, self-referral up to 12 weeks. Many women have abortions post-12 weeks because of delays in the National Health Service. The Health Service should be required to plan for the number of woman who will come for abortions so that the current delays will be reduced. Such things could be done to prevent late abortions. We have a 24-week limit, with exceptions for very hard cases.

A Bill is to come from the House of Lords which will enable us to have that position. If today's Bill is voted for, we will have an 18-week limit, which really means 16 weeks, with no exception for foetal abnormality unless the child would die. We are told that concessions may be made in Committee, but if the Bill is passed with a large majority the Committee will be dominated by anti-abortionists and the concessions will not be made. The hysterical public campaign will go on and people who think they may switch their votes will be under enormous pressure. This is not a rational way to decide such an important question.

I beg the House to vote the Bill down and to look at the much more considered Bill which will come from the House of Lords.