Relaxing abortion legislation ‘a tragic mistake for both mother and child’ says bishop.

Bishop John Sherrington, lead bishop for life issues for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has released a statement on the Criminal Justice Bill, which is due to be debated in parliament on Wednesday.

He expressed support for two tabled amendments, one of which would reduce the abortion time limit and the other that would not allow babies with Down syndrome to be aborted up to birth. However, he voiced deep concern about two tabled amendments that seek to liberalise abortion laws. “Relaxing abortion legislation further would be a tragic mistake for both mother and child,” he warned.

Bishop Sherrington encouraged people to contact their MPs to make their views clear on these amendments. “Now is the time for us to make our voices heard to stand up for the dignity of human life and you can do this by contacting your local MP using the form on the Bishops’ Conference website,” he told The Tablet. He added that, “I would also ask that you pray for both the unborn child and pregnant mother who deserve full protection under our laws.”

Pro-life groups lobbying under the banner “No to abortion up to birth” were expected to rally in Parliament Square from 11am on the day of the debate.

Bishop Sherrington supported an amendment from Caroline Ansell MP that would reduce the abortion time limit to 22 weeks. As a result of advances in medical practices many babies can now survive if born at 22 or 23 weeks gestation. And he called on parliamentarians to support the amendment tabled by Sir Liam Fox MP, which would bring an end to the situation whereby babies diagnosed with Down syndrome can be aborted up to birth. He said, “This would be a step towards ending the discrimination against babies diagnosed with a disability in our current abortion law.”

However, he was “deeply alarmed” by two amendments to the same Bill. One proposed by Dame Diana Johnson MP, if passed, would remove any legal protection for unborn babies when a woman seeks to bring about her own abortion at any stage of pregnancy. A further “danger presented by this amendment is that women could abort their own pregnancies at home through the use of abortion pills at any point in the pregnancy, which could seriously endanger a woman’s health and life.” Moreover, he said, “The risks of coerced or forced abortion would only increase as the legal safeguards around abortion decrease.”

The second amendment by Stella Creasy MP included proposals to decriminalise abortion up to the 24th week for any party involved and, he said, “carried similar threats to pregnant women and their unborn babies”.

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