Even vocal critics of the Labour Party hugely underestimated just how dire this Government could get.
MPs voted to decriminalise abortion on Tuesday (Image: John Myers)
I never had high hopes for this Labour government. But I must admit I underestimated just how dire things could get. I never imagined hundreds of Labour MPs would audaciously masquerade moral regression as a form of progress. Yet here we are. On Tuesday, Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill passed with minimal fanfare, after only two hours of debate and 379 MPs nodding along like bobbleheads.
This abomination of an amendment means a woman can now do anything to her unborn child, right up to the moment of birth, without legal consequence. Absolutely nothing – not deceit, not concealment, not even a late-term abortion of a viable baby – will make her criminally liable, as long as the foetus is her own. So, cases like that of Carla Foster, who aborted her daughter at 32 weeks, will no longer be subject to legal penalty. The foetus, however developed or viable, no longer has a right to life.
In a nation beset by crumbling infrastructure, anaemic economic growth, ballooning public debt, sputtering services, and unmanageable immigration, is this the hill our politicians have chosen to fight on? A morally deranged bill dressed up as a victory for women’s rights? You honestly couldn’t make it up.
What’s worse is the twisted logic behind it. Because the NHS botched its pandemic abortion policy by sending abortifacient pills in the post without medical oversight, MPs decided the answer was not to reinstate clinical safeguards, but to eliminate legal accountability altogether.
Before Covid, in-person appointments meant midwives could assess the stage of pregnancy. If someone was six months along, it was usually obvious. But during lockdown, remote prescriptions replaced physical check-ups. Women simply reported how far along they were, with no scans, no verification, and no questions asked.
That’s how Carla Foster got the pills she used to end her 32-week pregnancy.
One would think that the sensible solution would be to reintroduce face-to-face consultations. But when Tory MP Caroline Johnson proposed exactly that, it was rejected by the very MPs who just voted to decriminalise late-term abortions. It’s hard not to conclude that common sense and conscience have both left the building.