Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
EXCLUSIVE: The head of an international pro-life group criticizes a bill being considered in the UK that would protect women from criminal liability for abortion until birth.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, 40 Days for Life executive director Shawn Carney said that British MPs are following the efforts of Democrats in the US to seek to allow abortion in these cases, which he described as “absolutely absurd”.
“They didn’t really lobby for this,” Carney said. “Usually Europe is far more conservative on abortion than the United States. Most European countries regulate abortion up to 12 weeks. England has 16. In some cases they do late term, up to 24 weeks. But now they want abortion through all 40 weeks. And this seems like out of nowhere.”
Carney said he feared the bill, if passed into law, would “start an unfortunate trend across Europe.”
A bill is being considered in the United Kingdom that would protect women from criminal liability for having an abortion to terminate their own pregnancy before birth. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Crime and Policing Bill includes a provision, clause 208, which would remove criminal penalties for women in England and Wales who terminate their own pregnancies at any stage. The bill is now in its final stages in the House of Lords and is expected to receive a vote as early as Wednesday. If the House of Lords approves the clause, the bill will return to the House of Commons for final changes before receiving royal assent to become law.
Under that provision, a woman can no longer be investigated, arrested or prosecuted for terminating her own pregnancy in any pregnancy, even though the current standard legal threshold for most abortions in England and Wales is 24 weeks.
While women who terminate pregnancies would be exempt from criminal liability, doctors and others who assist in abortions after 24 weeks without medical necessity could still face prosecution.
As lawmakers consider Clause 208, several amendments have been offered, including removing it entirely, modifying it to exclude late-term abortions and adding a requirement for in-person medical consultations to end so-called “pill-by-mail” services.
THE GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO SIGNED THE LAW ON THE RECOGNITION OF THE UNBORN BABY AS A HUMAN BEING
According to the provision, a woman can no longer be investigated, arrested or prosecuted for terminating her own pregnancy in any pregnancy. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Carney argued that the last two amendments should still be unacceptable, saying the clause appeared to represent a “will to kill”.
“I think it’s crazy,” he said. “I know what they’re trying to do, but you have to fight the law by saying we don’t abort babies at 40 weeks. The left built an entire movement on the possibility of survival outside the womb with viability. Then as science and medicine progressed, viability changed because we could do a lot for unborn children. So first they said it was 24 weeks, then 22 weeks. Some say it’s 20 weeks. Others say it’s still 22 weeks. Nobody ever said if it’s 40 weeks, of course, it’s just a desire to kill in 40 weeks.”
“I understand the idea of trying to compromise legally,” he continued. “But the trade-off would be that you people are out of your mind. You want to abort a baby the day before it’s born. And it’s not medically necessary. The baby is fully viable…so that’s why I think you have to defeat these bills.”
Carney also said that “people don’t want to celebrate abortion” and “certainly don’t want to brag about how they can abort at 40 weeks,” adding that opponents UK account “there is a lack of a common-sense response” to efforts to allow all abortions up to birth.
He added that while most people are not “monsters” who seek an abortion at 40 weeks, removing the legal responsibility for women at that point could make abortion more socially acceptable.
“I think what it does is de-stigmatize abortion at 8, 10, 12, 16 weeks, because usually what we’ve seen in the U.S. is when you have states that say, hey, you’re going to have an abortion through all 40 weeks, what they’re doing is saying, well, okay, I’m not that bad. My abortion isn’t that bad because it’s only 10 weeks, it’s only 12 weeks, it’s only 16. week,” Carney said.
The bill is now in its final stages in the House of Lords and is expected to receive a vote as early as Wednesday. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“It’s not like you’re going to see a lot of abortions at 40 weeks. The mentality is that an abortion is no big deal. You can even have it the day before the birth, so it’s more acceptable to most people,” he continued.
“People are not monsters,” he added. “The monsters write these bills, and it’s usually very liberal white people who say, you know what, we have to have an abortion the day before your birthday. And most people look around at the party and say this person is clinically insane.”
The left “just got married to this,” Carney said.
“They believe that in order to be a free and just society, you need unfettered abortion at all times,” Carney said. “But nobody really needs that medically.”
