Labor MP Stella Creasy has said she will table an amendment to the forthcoming British Bill of Rights to give women the fundamental right to abortion.
Creasy said he would expect lawmakers to have a free vote on the issue, as a matter of conscience. He told the Guardian that the amendment will be tabled when the bill is published in second reading.
“Most women in the UK don’t realize that abortion is not a right, but there is only one law that exempts prosecution in certain circumstances,” she said. “What the US teaches us is that we cannot be complacent in consolidating these rights into law.”
In a complex legal situation, only women in Northern Ireland have a guaranteed right to abortion, following an amendment backed by Westminster MPs in 2019 to the NI executive training bill.
Despite this, abortions in Northern Ireland remain difficult to access. The UK government has established a legal framework for services, but so far they remain restricted due to a dead end in Stormont.
In England and Wales, the Abortion Act of 1967 legalized terminations in Britain for up to 24 weeks in most circumstances. But the law is framed in terms that mean abortion is not a right, but an exception when two doctors agree it would be dangerous to a woman’s mental or physical health. This phrase has been the subject of renewed scrutiny by activists.
Speaking in a parliamentary debate on the annulment of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, which had given American women the constitutional right to abortion, Creasy said, “Roe versus Wade gave women in the north -American constitutional right to abortion Currently here in the UK, only women in Northern Ireland have their constitutional rights to abortion protected as a human right.
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“I ask the minister a direct and simple question: if an amendment is tabled to the next Bill of Rights for those of us who recognize that this will be a matter of conscience and therefore a free vote, to protect women’s rights to choose for each woman in the UK, will you join me to vote for him?
Speaking on behalf of the government, Foreign Minister Amanda Milling said she would not “anticipate” the legislation. “As we have discussed, this would be a matter of conscience,” he said.
The Secretary of Justice, Dominic Raab, has published the new bill of rights, but the Commons have yet to debate it in second reading, scheduled for the coming weeks.