UK: Lord Alton’s call for new abortion committee rejected

The House of Lords Liaison Committee has refused a request from the anti-abortion peer Lord Alton of Liverpool that an ad hoc select committee be established on abortion and the working of the Abortion Act 1967. 

Lord Alton argued that, given the social, medical, ethical and legal changes since 1967, a committee should review whether the provisions of the 1967 Act remain appropriate. Alton argued that the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, via which amendments to the Abortion Act may be put, were not the right vehicle for Parliamentary consideration of abortion issues, saying his aim was to enable discussion of abortion to take place separately, at a later date.

The Committee responded as follows:

‘The Committee is conscious of the high reputation earned by previous House of Lords select committees appointed to examine issues relating to medical ethics. However we unanimously concluded that the proposal put to us was not an appropriate subject for an ad hoc committee. We considered that the scope of the proposal was unmanageably wide, and that in any event there was no particular case for undertaking a review of the 1967 Act now. Nor were we persuaded that the passage of the current Bill added support to the case for an inquiry.

‘We accordingly do not recommend the establishment of an ad hoc select committee on the current operation of the Abortion Act 1967.’

1st Report of Session 2007–08. House of Lords Liaison Committee, 15 January 2008

Also read:

1967 Abortion Act section, Abortion Review