Pro-life leader slams UK bill shielding women from charges for late-term abortions
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SPECIAL: The leader of an international pro-life group is criticizing a bill in the United Kingdom that would protect women from criminal liability for abortions up to birth.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, 40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney said British lawmakers were following efforts by Democrats in the US to allow abortion in such cases, which he called “absolutely ridiculous.”
“They didn’t really lobby for it,” Carney said. “Generally, Europe is much more conservative on abortion than the United States. Most European countries regulate abortion at 12 weeks. In the UK, it’s 16 weeks. In some cases, late-term, they do it up to 24 weeks. But now they want abortions for the whole 40 weeks. And it’s just coming out.”
Carney said he feared that if this bill became law, it would “start an unfortunate trend across Europe.”
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In the UK, a bill is being worked on that would protect women from criminal liability for abortions to terminate their own pregnancies before birth. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Crime and Policing Bill includes Section 208, which will remove criminal penalties for women who terminate their own pregnancy at any stage in England and Wales. The bill is currently in its final stages in the House of Lords and is expected to be voted on as early as Wednesday. If the House of Lords approves the clause, the bill will go back to the House of Commons for final amendments before becoming law without receiving Royal Assent.
Under this provision, a woman can no longer be investigated, arrested or prosecuted for terminating her own pregnancy in any pregnancy, although the current standard legal threshold for most abortions in England and Wales is 24 weeks.
While women who terminate their pregnancies are immune from criminal liability, doctors and others who assist in abortions after 24 weeks without medical necessity may still face prosecution.
As lawmakers considered Section 208, several changes were proposed, including repealing the clause altogether, amending it to exclude late-term abortions, and adding an in-person requirement for medical consultations to end so-called “pill-by-mail” services.
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According to the regulation, a woman can no longer be investigated, arrested or sued for terminating her own pregnancy at any time. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Carney argued that the last two amendments should still be unacceptable, stating that the clause represented “a desire to kill”.
“I think it’s crazy,” he said. “I know what they’re trying to do, but you have to go against the law to say we can’t abort children at 40 weeks. The left has built a whole movement around the ability to survive outside the womb. Then as science and medicine progressed viability changed because we can do so much for unborn children. And they first said it was 24 weeks, then 22 weeks. Some say it’s 20 weeks. Others still say it’s 22. No one said it was 40 weeks. Of course they said you could survive outside the womb. That’s right.” “It seems at 40 weeks it’s just a killing intent.”
“I understand the idea of reaching a legal settlement,” he continued. “But the compromise would be that you guys are out of your mind. You want to abort a child the day before it’s born. And it’s not medically necessary. The baby is completely viable… so I think that’s how you have to beat these bills.”
Carney also said that “people don’t want to celebrate abortion” and “they certainly don’t want to brag that they can have an abortion up to 40 weeks”, adding that opponents of the UK bill have “lacked common sense responses” to efforts to allow abortions up to birth.
He added that while most people are not “monsters” seeking an abortion at 40 weeks, removing women’s legal responsibility at this point could make abortion more socially acceptable.
“I think it takes away a little bit of the stigma around abortions at 8, 10, 12, 16 weeks, because typically what we see in the United States is states that say you’re going to have an abortion at 40 weeks, what they’re doing is saying, okay, I’m not that bad. My abortion isn’t that bad because it’s only at 10 weeks, only at 12 weeks, only at 16 weeks,” Carney said.
The bill is currently in its final stages in the House of Lords and is expected to be voted on as early as Wednesday. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“It doesn’t mean you’re going to see a lot of abortions at 40 weeks. It’s the mentality that abortion is not that big of a deal. You can even do it the day before birth, so it’s more acceptable for most people,” she continued.
“Humans are not monsters,” he added. “These bills are written by monsters, usually very liberal white people, who say, you know what, we need to have abortions the day before their birthday. And most people look around at a party and say that person is clinically insane.”
Carney said the left “just got married to this.”
“They believe that in order to be a free and fair society, unrestricted abortion is always needed,” Carney said. “But no one actually needs it medically.”
