division_name: Abortion
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the law relating to abortion in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland; to remove criminal liability in respect of abortion performed with the consent of the pregnant woman up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy; to repeal sections 59 and 60 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; to create offences of termination of a pregnancy after its twenty-fourth week and non-consensual termination of a pregnancy; to amend the law relating to conscientious objection to participation in abortion treatment; and for connected purposes.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;serves to safeguard women or doctors&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I spent Christmas Day in casualty with my two children. My husband had beaten me to a pulp&#8230;He had repeatedly raped me&#8230;Six weeks later I discovered I was pregnant, I could not continue with the pregnancy. Knowing my husband would carry out his threats to kill me if he found out, I went to my GP who told me abortion was illegal in Northern Ireland and refused to help.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Every minute, every second of the day&#8212;you have to live with the knowledge that the child inside you is going to die.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/14" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;kick the baby out and stab it if it is born.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I should be at home, in the privacy of my own home. Instead I&#8217;m trying to discreetly bleed in a shitty hotel. There&#8217;s no dignity. There&#8217;s no privacy.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/20" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Human rights are women&#8217;s rights, and women&#8217;s rights are human rights&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/23" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;having an abortion should not be a crime&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c140.6/25" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Westminster should legislate to reform the law&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Government believe that the question of any future reform in Northern Ireland must be debated and decided by the people of Northern Ireland and their locally elected, and therefore accountable, politicians.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2018-06-05">5 June</phrase> 2018; Vol. 642, c. 220.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;it would not be right for the UK Government to undermine the devolution settlement by trying to force on the people of Northern Ireland something that we in Westminster think is right&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2018-05-09">9 May</phrase> 2018; Vol. 640, c. 661.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Our focus is restoring a democratically accountable devolved government in Northern Ireland&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Facilitate the formation of an Executive in Northern Ireland&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/14" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Changing the law in Northern Ireland at this sensitive political moment on this sensitive political issue is bad for devolution everywhere.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/16" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The decisions of devolved Administrations are taken for reasons that people in those devolved nations understand from their point of view&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2018-06-05">5 June</phrase> 2018; Vol. 642, c. 228.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/18" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;as someone who operates in a devolved administration, I know how angry I would be if the House of Commons legislated on a domestic Scottish issue over the head of Holyrood&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c143.0/21" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a haven for parents who would terminate female foetuses in favour of having sons&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c145.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;What is the situation if the 1861 Act was to be repealed in the UK?&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c145.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This scenario would leave abortion unregulated in Northern Ireland.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c145.1/13" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c145.1/14" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 208, Noes 123.</p>