Statement by TUV leader and North Antrim MP Jim Allister:-
“Tomorrow the House of Commons will debate two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill which would see abortion up to full-term legalised by the removal of the legal provisions which criminalise such.
“In consequence a woman could self-administer abortion pills and, with risk to her own health, kill her unborn child, and, yet, no longer be breaking the law.
“At present the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 makes such an offence in respect of a child capable of independent existence outside the womb.
“Whereas abortion pills are only supposed to be available up to 10 week gestation, there is no way to police this as applicants self-declare the stage of their pregnancy in purchasing the pills online. The Carla Foster case demonstrates how open to abuse the present system is. How much worse will it become if all criminal sanction is removed. This is why I have signed an amendment which would require face-to-face medical consultation before such pills are provided.
“Abortion up to birth is, to me, a wholly obnoxious and repugnant proposition, yet this is what the proposers of these amendments, Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi are seeking to advance. I am disappointed that two NI MPs, Clare Hanna and Sorcha Eastwood, are backing the Antoniazzi amendment and Ms Eastwood has also signed the even more extreme Creasy amendment!
“Of course, it will be remembered that it was Stella Creasy’s amendment to the Executive Formation Bill in 2019 which brought to NI the most extreme abortion laws with which these amendments will now see much of GB share.
“I will strenuously oppose these amendments, believing the innocent unborn must be given a voice.”