Kevin Duffy

It appears Lord Robert Winston has also deceived the House of Lords more directly in order to promote abortion up to birth. He made this bizarre claim that it is "virtually impossible" to induced labour in a woman who does not have ruptured membranes with drugs, to try and claim that late-term abortions with abortion pills will be extremely rare under the new law. Medically, it is total nonsense. This is seriously concerning for a medical professional and a parliamentarian.

Dame Sarah Mullally reiterates the Church of England's historic opposition to abortion as she confirms she will vote against the decriminalisation of abortion.

Clause 208—abortion decriminalisation There are three possible outcomes tonight, one is good, another is terrible, and the third is a compromise that might be okay. 🟢The House of Lords votes to accept Amendment 424, tabled by Baroness Monckton, which would remove Clause 208 from the Bill and also accepts Amendment 425, tabled by Baroness Stroud, which would reinstate in-person medical consultations before prescribing abortion pills. 🔴Peers reject both these amendments and Clause 208 remains in the C&P Bill. 🟠Peers reject 424 but accept 425, which means abortion decriminalisation—for women—would stand but in the context of in-person consultations before prescribing, which in turn helps to minimise the risk of an NHS backstreet in which the pills-by-post process is abused.

The Times’ View on today’s Lords’ vote: those protections that have historic­ally been granted to a viable foetus are effectively erased, long past the point where a baby could have survived independently. And for vulnerable mothers, it raises the prospect of exactly the fearful, squalid and risky back-street abortions that David Steel’s 1967 Abortion Act was meant to avoid.