What Did You Expect?

When was a woman in Great Britain last refused an abortion? After all, on what grounds would she have been? Section 37 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 legalised abortion up to birth if there were, "a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped." There was no definition of "a substantial risk", nor of "physical or mental abnormalities", nor of "serious handicap". No particular abnormality has ever needed to be specified. This received Royal Assent on 1 November 1990. Even if only for another four weeks, who was still the Prime Minister on 1 November 1990?

Enacted at Westminster rather than at Stormont, Part 3 of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 was entitled "Grounds for termination: cases with no gestational limit", with one such ground being that, "if the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or mental impairment as to be seriously disabled." Again, there was no definition of the terms. These Regulations have been in force since 31 March 2020. Who was the Prime Minister on 31 March 2020? Like the one on 1 November 1990, he had a huge parliamentary majority. Like her, this was what he did with it. This, and the authorisation, one day earlier, of pills by post, "time limited for two years, or until the pandemic is over ‒ whichever is earliest." In 2022, Parliament made that permanent. Late last night, the House of Lords kept it that way.

From those in either House who voted for formal decriminalisation, or who advocated it from outside, let us never again hear how European they were. The most common limit in Europe is 12 weeks, with only the Netherlands having the 24 weeks that had hitherto notionally applied in Britain. In Germany, there is nothing more than a list of conditions under which abortion would not be prosecuted, but the act itself is expressly illegal, and one of those conditions is usually the 12-week limit, at least in theory. Even in France, the recent enshrinement of abortion as a constitutional right extends only to abortion as determined by law, which includes a general 14-week limit. And so on.

It has long been established that there were no beheaded babies on 7 October 2023. But how do you think that an abortion is performed at 38 weeks? As it has been lawfully in Northern Ireland since 31 March 2020, and lawfully in Great Britain since 1 November 1990.