The vote today is a demonstration of the power this multi-million pound industry, famous for its “cattle market” culture, has at Westminster

Life is disappointed at today’s Commons vote to take forward Diana Johnson’s abortion bill which seeks to impose abortion on Northern Ireland and introduce abortion on demand in England and Wales.

The House of Commons today had a majority vote in favour of Ms Johnson’s bill being considered on 23 November.

Life’s Director of Advocacy Anne Scanlan said: “Just the consideration of this bill seeking to impose abortion on Northern Ireland represents a slap in the face of the people of Northern Ireland. But what we have seen in the vote today is a demonstration of the power this multi-million pound industry, famous for its “cattle market” culture, has at Westminster.

For years the conditions of the Abortion Act (1967) have been a bugbear for abortion clinics and they want those business impediments removed. Ms Johnson’s bill prepared with the help of the largest abortion providers in England and Wales, BPAS and Marie Stopes and the abortion rights campaigner Amnesty, wants abortion to be available for any reason which will include gender and disability. Despite public opinion which is horrified at legal late term abortions, it recommends although doctors have a limit of six months, women should be able to abort their baby after six months gestation if they do it themselves.

This bill would enable abusers and groomers to hide their crimes by demanding that victims get an abortion or self-abort with no questions asked. In all the major grooming cases abortion has been used as a tool to hide the crimes of abusers.

The bill also devalues life when an unborn baby can be terminated at any time and for any reason without question or legal consequences. No society which truly values equality should possess such laws which allow for babies to be terminated because they are girls or because they are disabled.

Ms Johnson’s bill is one of the most morally repugnant pieces of legislation to ever come to the House of Commons. It is not in the interest of women, not in the interest of equality and not in the interest of the devolved authority of the people of Northern Ireland. It should have been rejected and binned.”

ENDS

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