The Leader of the House of Commons has just announced that the House of Commons will consider Lords Amendments to the Health and Care Bill on Wednesday next week (30 March). This means that there are just six days until the DIY abortion amendment will be debated in the Commons.
“We urgently need supporters to write to their MPs now,” said Alithea Williams, SPUC Public Policy Manager. “If this amendment is passed through the Commons, DIY abortion will be on the statute book. As we know that it is impossible to regulate, this will mean there will effectively be no restrictions on abortion. People will be able to access abortion drugs for any reason, and there is nothing to stop them being taken over the legal limit.”
The abortion lobby has been fighting back against the Government’s welcome announcement that the temporary measures allowing abortion drugs to be sent in the post without an in person consultation would be scrapped in August.
On Thursday 17 March, Baroness Sugg tabled an amendment to the Health and Care Bill to make home provision of abortion permanent. Despite opposition from the Government, it was approved by peers in a vote that took place after 1am, by 75 votes to 35.
The amendment (now Lords Amendment 92 of the Health and Care Bill) will now be passed to the Commons.
How to write to MPs
SPUC is asking supporters to contact their MP, asking him/her to oppose Lords Amendment 92 and to vote against it.
Your letter or email need only be brief. Here are some points you can include:
- The Government has decided, following examination of all the evidence, not to make home abortion provision permanent. This should not be overturned by a small number of Peers hijacking an unrelated bill
- We were promised that this measure would be temporary. Now that other pandemic-era measures have ended, so should this
- 70% of respondents to the public consultation called for the home abortion scheme to be ended immediately. The democratic voice of the people should be respected
- 45% of the group of women who had accessed abortion service during the pandemic and had used both abortion drugs felt that there were benefits in relation to safeguarding and women’s safety in requiring at least one visit to a service to be assessed by a clinician, (as opposed to 22% saying that there would be disadvantages). Proponents of DIY abortion say we should listen to women, so why are they ignoring women who actually went through this?
“The Government made the right decision to end this policy after listening to the evidence, including the overwhelming results of the public consultation,” Ms Williams concluded. “We call on MPs to reject this dangerous and undemocratic amendment.
“The DIY home abortion scheme has inflicted untold damage to countless mothers and their babies. It should be consigned to history, where it belongs.”
Click here to send a message to your MP.