UK: House of Lords to debate amendments to the Abortion Act

Life peer Baroness Masham has placed two amendments to the Abortion Act that aimed to ban abortion for fetal abnormality and ban ‘selective fetal reduction’ in multiple pregnancies. 

Baroness Masham is a crossbencher and member of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group. She placed her amendments via the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

At the end of January, the amendment that would have banned abortion for fetal abnormality was defeated by a significant majority for the House of Lords, of 89 votes against, and 22 votes in favour of the ban. 

The House of Commons has yet to debate the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which is the vehicle by which the 1967 Abortion Act could be amended.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of General Practitioners, British Medical Association, and other professional bodies have said that forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy when the fetus was known to be seriously abnormal would be ‘inhumane’. 

The charity Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC), which provides specialised information and non-directive support to parents throughout antenatal testing and the subsequent decision- making process, has offered Peers information about the effect such an amendment would have on the women and couples they support.

Abortion on the grounds of fetal abnormality is permitted in 25 out of 27 EU member states. The only EU countries which do not permit abortion on these grounds are Malta and Ireland, where all abortions are extremely restricted. Screening in pregnancy for fetal abnormality in the UK is optional. Most pregnant women in the UK choose to be screened and the majority of women are in favour of termination being available if a significant disability is diagnosed. In many cases the mid-pregnancy scan which detects abnormality may not be carried out until 22 weeks’ gestation, as earlier scans may be less accurate. Following a diagnosis of a possible abnormality, additional time is often needed for further tests and to allow the parents to decide whether to continue the affected pregnancy. ARC argues that reducing the current time limit or preventing abortion on the grounds of fetal abnormality after 24 weeks would be extremely detrimental to women being told of an abnormality at a late stage in pregnancy.

Removing fetal abnormality as grounds for abortion at every gestation would also particularly affect parents who know they are carriers of serious genetic disorders and who risk having a baby with the condition, which for some would severely limit their options to have children at all.

The ‘Miss D’ case in Ireland in 2007 caused outrage when a pregnant teenager with a severely abnormal fetus was refused permission to travel for an abortion by the authorities, even though her child would be severely disabled and would have died shortly after birth. This decision was overturned after a court case, in which the restriction on treatment and attempt to restrict travel was acknowledged to have caused additional suffering for Miss ‘D’ at an already distressing time.

Also read:

Ireland’s Miss D: a ‘bizarre dispute’, by Barbara Hewson. Abortion Review, 24 May 2007

More on the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

1967 Abortion Act section, Abortion Review