Unborn Protections Should at Least Match Those Given to Animals, Says Lord’s Bill

Labour and Lib Dem peers critised plans to determine the sentience of unborn babies and embryos, branded it a ploy to ‘roll back’ abortion rights.
Unborn Protections Should at Least Match Those Given to Animals, Says Lord’s Bill
An ultrasound of a fetus, approximately five months after conception, taken in February 2001. Didier Pallages/AFP via Getty Images
Owen Evans
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A bill proposing the establishment of a committee to assess the sentience of unborn babies and embryos should afford them rights equivalent to those enjoyed by animal foetuses, according to a Conservative peer.

On Friday the House of Lords received a second reading of Tory peer Lord Moylan’s proposals for a bill to “make provision for a Foetal Sentience Committee to review current understanding of the sentience of the human foetus and to inform policy-making.”

Supporters of the Foetal Sentience Committee private members bill claim there is an urgent need to monitor sentience as “legal protection for dog foetuses from seven weeks onwards, but there is no equivalent legislation for human foetuses.”

‘When It Kicks In’

Conservative Peer Lord Moylan speaks to NTD's British Thought Leaders programme. (NTD)
Conservative Peer Lord Moylan speaks to NTD's British Thought Leaders programme. NTD

Lord Moylan said: “I think it is fair to say that there is considerable breadth of view on this question of human foetal sentience and when it kicks in.

“We would all benefit, Government would benefit, but so would all the relevant professions, from having a forum in which a clearer and more determined view and one which developed over time could be thrashed out between different medical professions.”

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 allows for the creation of a similar committee related to animals, while recognising the sentience of mammals and some sea creatures like lobsters and octopuses.

“I would be surprised if the minister wanted to say that a human foetus should be denied the same esteem as a lobster, but in fact that is the current position,” Lord Moylan said.

He also added the bill “does nothing to change the way in which any proposed future changes to abortion law are carried out.

“It has no implications other than providing a focus for scientific knowledge on the course of legal developments relating to abortion, and it does nothing to impinge on the legal rights of women to terminate a pregnancy.”

The bill was debated as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to lower the abortion limit to 22 weeks.

Strange but True

Independent Crossbench Life Peer Lord David Alton said: “It is extraordinary that anyone could oppose the creation of a scientific committee to investigate the pain which can be experienced by an unborn child.”
In the Critic, he expanded on why he is supporting the bill.

He said, “Let us not forget that, when it comes to human beings in this country, babies with disabilities, including Down’s syndrome, club foot, and cleft lip and palate, can be aborted right the way up to birth.”

He referenced an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report into foetal sentience and pain, which he commissioned, that noted, “it is strange but true that in these situations a dog foetus at seven weeks gestation will have more protections in law than a human foetus.”

Right To Life UK spokeswoman, Catherine Robinson, told The Epoch Times by email that she believed that the need to create a committee to monitor sentience “is clear.”

“There have been rapid developments in scientific knowledge relating to the development of the unborn child since the Abortion Act was passed in 1967 and the abortion time limit was last changed over 30 years ago in 1990,” she said.

“Given our developing understanding of foetal sentience, the need to create a committee to monitor, and advise the Government in regard to foetal sentience is clear,” she added.

“This is all the more so in light of the apparent stark difference between unborn animal and unborn human life. As Lord Moylan pointed out, there is legal protection for dog foetuses from seven weeks onwards, but there is no equivalent legislation for human foetuses,” said Ms. Robinson.

She said that the government has “acknowledged that unborn babies undergoing surgery for spina bifida from 20 weeks gestation on the NHS receive pain relief. Tragically, at this same gestation babies undergoing abortion are not routinely provided pain relief.”

‘Try and Limit the Time Limits’

Labour peer Baroness Kennedy of the Shaw alleged that “dark money has surged into the United Kingdom’s anti-abortion groups in recent years.”

Lord Moylan asked if he was being accused of receiving “dark money.”

Lady Kennedy replied: “I am perfectly happy to say that some innocent dupes are used by some of these organisations that are funded in this way.”

“We should be concerned about overseas political influence inside our own country, but sadly many far-right organisations are being funded by sources that come this way.”

She accused the Bill of rolling “back advances that have been made in relation to abortion, and to try and limit the time limits that we currently have.”

PA Media contributed to this report.
Owen Evans
Owen Evans
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Owen Evans is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of national stories, with a particular interest in civil liberties and free speech.