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ACT NOW To Stop Abortion Up to Birth

On Tuesday, 17 June, MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s radical amendment to the Crime and Policing bill was accepted by the House of Commons. This clause [191] will make it legal for women to perform their own abortions without medical oversight or legal consequence, at any stage of pregnancy and during birth. NC1 [now Clause 191] was tabled under the guise of “decriminalisation”.

The amendment was pushed forward without the usual democratic processes: there was no public consultation, no formal evidence hearings, and no detailed examination at Committee Stage. Instead, the most substantial shift in abortion legislation in more than 50 years was granted just 46 minutes of debate among backbench MPs, followed by a ministerial summary that allowed no opportunity for challenge or clarification.

The debate has moved to the House of Lords. Now more than ever, Peers need to be made aware of the full legal implications of Clause 191 and the harm it will cause to women and their children. They must be encouraged to remove it from the bill.

  Decriminalising abortion would permit:

  • Abortions up to birth, for any reason

  • Sex-selective abortions

  • Backstreet abortions without medical oversight

  • Partial-birth abortions

  • Infanticide under the guise of termination

  • Concealing and disposing of babies’ bodies — even if born alive

Abortion harms women- here's the Evidence

  • 1 in 17 women who use the abortion pill at home will need hospital treatment for complications1 
  • 33 women a day are admitted as inpatients to an NHS hospital for treatment of abortion complications1 
  • Government under-reports abortion complications by a factor of 38x2
  • 81% increased risk of mental health issues following abortion3 
  • Drug use is 250% higher among women who have had an abortion compared to those who have not3 
  • The odds of suicide or self-harm are 155% higher among women who have had an abortion compared to those who have not3 
  • 30% increase risk of anxiety following abortion4 
  • 130% increased risk of alcohol abuse following abortion4
  • 15% of women aged 18–44 experienced pressure to abort5
  • 5% experienced physical violence intended to cause miscarriage5
  • 3% were drugged with abortion pills without knowledge or consent5

For further studies and evidence of harms to women, click button below:

EVIDENCE

Take Action 

Write to Peers in the House of Lords, click button below for template email on SPUC website: (make sure you edit your template to include information from this page)
WRITE TO PEERS

Find out how your MP voted and contact them urging them to vote against clause 191 when the bill returns to the House of Commons.
CONTACT YOUR MP


You can also call out Antoniazzi publicly—on X, Instagram, and Facebook—using the information on this page. Tag your MP too. If they were not aware of the evidence of abortion harm, let’s invite them to see it. If they were, then we must hold them accountable for the harm they seem prepared to inflict. 

 

A Government petition has been setup to protect babies in the womb who have a heartbeat, please sign and share: Sign petition


References:

1 Kevin Duffy - former director of Marie Stopes International:

Percuity Blog
The Abortion Pill Harms Women
1 in 17 women

2 Government under-reports abortion complications by a factor of 38x

3 Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009 - study by Priscilla K. Coleman

4 Reactions to abortion and subsequent mental health - study by David Fergusson

5 https://savanta.com/knowledge-centre/poll/reproductive-coercion-poll-bbc-radio-4-8-march-2022/