British Parliament Votes 181-1 to Declare Sex-Selection Abortions Illegal

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 4, 2014   |   11:53AM   |   London, England

Members of the British Parliament today voted 181-1 to declare sex-selection abortions illegal. The vote came on a motion brought forward by a cross-party alliance of MPs to end questions about whether doctors can be criminally prosecuted for doing an abortion on the grounds of the sex of the unborn baby.

The confusion came when much-criticized prosecutor Sir Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, refused to bring charges against two doctors caught in an undercover investigation okaying abortions for sex-selective purposes. Starmer said the law does not expressly prohibit sex-selection abortions.

sexselectionabortionbFiona Bruce, the Conservative MP who was behind the effort to ban-sex-selection abortions, talked about her motion in the House of Commons. She took one of the leading British abortion businesses to task.

“It is a shame that this clarification is needed. Successive health minsters and even the Prime Minister have been very clear they state that abortion for reasons of gender alone is illegal. The Prime Minister has described the practice as appalling but they are being ignored,” she said. “The British Pregnancy Advisory Service which provides around 60,000 abortions a year flatly disagrees. Even today they are advising women in one of their leaflets and on their website that abortion for reasons of foetal sex is not illegal because the law is silent on the matter.”

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“The British Medical Association hold yet anther interpretation. They argue that having a child of a particular gender may be a legal and ethical justification for an abortion on the basis that the sex of the child may severely affect the pregnant woman’s mental health,” she continued. “I find it deplorable that anyone would be satisfied to provide a sex selective abortion to a woman who after she has had it is then sent afterwards back to an abusive partner. what needs to be addressed in these dire circumstances is the abuse itself. That is one of the aims of this bill.”

Yesterday, the pro-life group Christian Concern released information about a poll showing most Brits oppose sex-selection abortions.

Four out of five adults support the prosecution of doctors who authorize ‘gender-abortion’, according to a new opinion poll, commissioned by Christian Concern and published over the weekend.

80% of British adults agreed that ‘where it can be proved that an abortion was authorized on grounds of the baby’s gender, the doctor authorizing that abortion should be prosecuted.’

Ten days ago, it was revealed that 21 year old Aisling Hubert is pursuing a rare private prosecution of two doctors who were exposed by a national newspaper of being willing to offer abortion on grounds of gender. She is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre.

The poll, carried out by ComRes, also found that more than four in five adults (84%) agree that ‘aborting babies because of their gender should explicitly be banned by law’.