I want to write to Baroness Walmsley
Baroness Walmsley: ...Ockenden emphasised that listening to women and empowering them in their care will lead to improved outcomes. I therefore remind the Minister of the parallel between this situation and telemedicine abortion treatment, where the Government are failing to listen to women’s clinically safe preferences. I was pleased to hear recently that Members of the House of Commons have been listening...
Baroness Walmsley: My Lords, before I make any comments about the amendment, I want to make it very clear that this Front Bench believes that it does not change the law on abortion. It is just about access to a safe and legal medicine, which is why we have encouraged our colleagues to vote for it. However, it has been made clear, both in the written Whip and verbally by me at our group meeting this afternoon,...
Baroness Walmsley: ...women in favour and four men and four women against—and the noble Lord, Lord Duncan, on the side I am on. Despite what has been said, I still do not believe that this amendment changes the law on abortion. It is about access to medicine and, often, access for the most vulnerable women. I accept that it is difficult to speak at this time of night about an issue such as this but, quite...
Baroness Walmsley: ...since the national lockdown was lifted and local lockdowns imposed. I very much welcome the app, but I regret that it has taken so long to be available following the withdrawal of the first abortive attempt. Other countries have had a working app for months. Why not England and Wales? Before I leave the subject of the app, will it help local authorities to track back to the source of new...
Baroness Walmsley: ...cessation services; and these need to be encouraged, not cut, during this two-year Parliament. I was about to ask for the Secretary of State for Health to reverse the injustice of not providing abortions for women from Northern Ireland on the National Health Service. I was pleased to learn during the course of this debate in your Lordships’ House that the announcement has been made that...
Baroness Walmsley: ..., behind only the USA. However, as we have of course heard, there they fortify their flour and have half the relative incidence of NTDs compared to us. The problem is getting worse. The number of abortions due to NTDs has risen 40% in England and Wales in the four years to 2013, which is the latest figure that I have seen. The availability of terminations free on the NHS is not a cost-free...
Baroness Walmsley: ...children who do not take enough exercise—for various reasons, including lack of facilities—one of the poorest records on child mortality in Europe, far too many unwanted teenage pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases among young people, and poor children who can have up to seven years’ shorter lifespan than their well-off counterparts down the road. Let us talk...
Baroness Walmsley: ...and they just said, 'Don't do drugs. Drugs are bad'. It was useless". She also told me that she did not have any sex education until she was 17 and that they do not teach about contraception or abortion in their Catholic school except in RE, where they say, "Don't do it; it's a sin". That is just not good enough. I realise that this is a very small sample of hearsay evidence but it lines...
Baroness Walmsley: ...ways at all. They will be able to ignore the very sound and reasonable principles for teaching SRE in the Bill. This could affect teaching on homosexuality, sexual relationships outside marriage, abortion, contraception, divorce and remarriage. The Government claim that all schools will have to teach the full curriculum and abide by the principles. This is not the case. Subsections (8) and...
Baroness Walmsley: ...in all that they do. This applies, in particular, to all work about sex and relationships education. They robustly teach, for example, about the sanctity of life and do not and would not promote abortion. We do not expect the situation to change in the light of the Children, Schools and Families Bill". That is a clear indication that these schools do not believe that they have to abide by...
Baroness Walmsley: My Lords, does the Minister agree that if an abortion must be performed, it should be performed as early as possible? Is he aware of the concern of the All-Party Group on Pro-choice and Sexual Health that the standard three-week waiting time should be reduced to one week? In the light of that, are the Government considering the proposals of the Family Planning Association that the second...
Baroness Walmsley: ...the coercion and abuse situation--until now. Now we have a weapon which should help so long as it is made easily available at no undue cost. In doing so, we may also be able to reduce the number of abortions. Recently, evidence has been published showing that 90 per cent of pregnancies that were terminated could have been prevented by emergency contraception, and 70 per cent of women...