MP Moves to End Home Abortion Without Seeing Clinician

Pro-life groups demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, on May 15, 2024. (Lucy North/PA Wire)

An MP has proposed an amendment to ban pregnant women from taking abortion-inducing pills at home without an in-person consultation.

Flick Drummond MP’s amendment, added to the Criminal Justice Bill on Thursday, would reverse the COVID-19 era measures, meaning pregnant women could no longer conduct abortions after only having consultations over the telephone or via electronic means.

The Conservative MP for Meon Valley said in her explanatory statement, “This new clause would mean that a pregnant woman would need to have an in-person consultation before lawfully being prescribed medicine for the termination of a pregnancy.”

The amendment has cross-party support, including from former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, and Labour MP Rachael Maskell.

In March 2020—during lockdown—the government had put in place measures to allow women to take both abortion pills for early abortion up to 10 weeks gestation at home following a telephone or e-consultation with a clinician, rather than needing to go to a medical setting or clinic in person.

The measures were intended to be temporary, but on March 30, 2022, Parliament voted in favour of making the provision permanent in England and Wales.

‘Urgent Reinstatement’

Right To Life UK spokeswoman Catherine Robinson told The Epoch Times via email: “Only two years ago, the vote to make at-home abortions permanently available passed by just 27 votes. A large number of MPs had serious concerns about the negative impact these schemes would have on women.”

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Ms. Robinson referenced the case of Carla Foster, who in March 2023 pleaded guilty to illegally procuring her own abortion when she was eight months pregnant. She was jailed for 28 months, but in July 2023, the Court of Appeal released her and replaced the custodial sentence with a suspended sentence of 14 months.

The Right to Life spokeswoman said: “Since then, we have seen these concerns borne out, with women such as Carla Foster performing at-home abortions well beyond the 24-week time limit, putting their health at serious risk. If Carla Foster had been given an in-person consultation, where her gestation could have been accurately determined, she would not have been able to access abortion pills and this tragic case would have been prevented.”

“The clear solution here is the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments. This would prevent women’s lives from being put at risk from self-administered late-term abortions,” she said.

Lowering Abortion Time Limits

Ms. Drummond’s clause is one of five pro-life and pro-abortion amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill.

Conservative MP Caroline Ansell’s proposed amendment would bring the upper limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 22, bringing it closer in line with the advancement in medical science and the rest of Europe.

Ms. Robinson told The Epoch Times that at the moment, “a baby at 22 or 23 weeks gestation could be born prematurely and have a dedicated medical team provide expert care to try to save his or her life, while another baby at the same age could have their life deliberately ended by abortion in the same hospital at the same time. This is a contradiction in UK law.”

“That’s why we need to support Caroline Ansell’s amendment to lower the abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks,” she said.

Most abortions in England, Wales, and Scotland are carried out before 24 weeks. In exceptional circumstances, abortions can be carried out after that point such as in cases when the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.

An amendment proposed by Conservative MP Dr. Liam Fox would protect children with Down’s syndrome from being legally aborted beyond 24 weeks “where any risk is purely on the grounds of a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.”

Moves to Decriminalise Abortion

Labour’s Dame Diana Johnson has proposed an amendment that would disapply current criminal law related to abortion, “ensuring no woman would be liable for a prison sentence as a result of seeking to end her own pregnancy.”

Stella Creasy, also Labour, proposed a new clause that would “decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks” and would mean that women who have late-term abortions do not receive prison sentences.

Ms. Creasy said on social media platform X on May 1: “Decriminalising abortion doesn’t mean deregulation or demedicalisation. It means removing the criminal laws which are being used to target women and doctors and ensuring the right to choose is [a] healthcare matter.”

Pro-life groups demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, on May 15, 2024. (Lucy North/PA Wire)

However, the Right to Life UK spokeswoman said that Ms. Creasy’s and Dame Diana’s amendments are “extreme and radical” and “have no place in the UK,” citing recent polling which shows that the public “does not support these changes to the law.”

Voting on the abortion-related amendments will take place on June 4. The Speaker will announce which amendments have been selected at the beginning of the debate, with votes taking place towards the end of the debate.