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The Conservative MP said she did not believe women had an “absolute right to bodily autonomy” during a debate over the US Supreme Court’s annulment of the Roe v Wade ruling.
Devizes MP Danny Kruger told the Commons that the issue was “an appropriate topic for political debate” and that British politicians should not “lecture” their American counterparts.
It comes just days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 legal ruling that enshrined the right to abortion for millions of American women. The procedure is expected to be outlawed in many U.S. states and has sparked international convictions, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling it “a step backwards.”
During a debate on the issue in the Commons on Tuesday, Kruger said he “probably wouldn’t agree” with his parliamentary colleagues on the ruling.
He said: “They think that women have an absolute right to bodily autonomy in this matter, while I believe that in the case of abortion this right is qualified by the fact that there is another body.”
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While the deputies were trying to talk about him, Mr. Kruger continued, “I would offer to members trying to dismiss me that this is an appropriate topic for political debate … What I’m saying at the table is that I don’t understand why we are. Give a lecture in the United States on a ruling for to return decision-making power over this political issue to the states, to those who make democratic decisions, rather than leaving it in the hands of the courts. “
Kruger is the son of Bake Off Judge Prue Leith, who has previously opened up about the terrible experience of having an illegal abortion.
In response to her statements, Walthamstow Labor MP Stella Creasy said abortion was “fundamentally for many of us a human rights issue”.
He added: “Currently in the UK, only women in Northern Ireland have their constitutional right to abortion protected as a human right, but we can change that and that is what this place and this urgent issue can do today. “.
Former Conservative minister Jackie Doyle-Price said the UK must “predict by example” and reform its own abortion laws to ensure they are in the best interests of women’s health.