Abortion law change risks ‘sex selection’

PROPOSALS to decriminalise abortion up to 24 weeks will open the door to sex selection of foetuses, campaigners have claimed.

An amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill – which is due to be debated next week – would end the prosecution of women if they abort before 24 weeks.

However, there are fears that women will face pressure to abort foetuses because they are female, opening the door to sex selection.

In England, Scotland and Wales, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks with the approval of two doctors.

However, after 10 weeks the procedure must be carried out in an approved clinic or NHS hospital.

The change, proposed by MPs including Stella Creasy and Dan Poulter, the former health minister andl doctor, would exclude women from prosecution under the Abortion Act up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Any prosecution against a woman for an abortion outside that time period would only be allowed with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

‘Many women come under pressure to have a termination because they are expecting a girl’

This does not go as far as an amendment by Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, which proposes full decriminalisation of abortion after 24 weeks.

However, Devi Shah, spokeswoman for the Stop Gendercide campaign, said: “It’s a heartbreaking reality that many women here in the UK come under pressure to have a termination from their partners and family members simply because they are expecting a girl.

“If sex-selective abortion is made legal, it will make it much more difficult for women to refuse pressure from their families to seek a sex-selective abortion.

“The legalisation, combined with the private availability of early NIPT tests for gender, would likely lead to a significant increase in sex-selective abortions taking place here in the UK.”

However, Ms Creasy said a government investigation had found claims of widespread demand for sex selection in the UK was a myth.

It had explicitly said there was no evidence to support the claims. “It’s a lie put about by people who want to restrict access to abortion.

“This is about making it harder for women to have abortions by suggesting they want to do it for that purpose,” she said.