Abortion law must now be revisited’ says Fiona Bruce MP
Following reports today that the illegal abortion of female foetuses solely to ensure that families have sons – so called ‘family balancing’ - is increasingly practised in Britain and has resulted in shortfalls in the proportion of girls born in some communities, Fiona Bruce MP Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Pro Life Group said today:
“The law as it stands does not permit abortion on the ground of gender. As the figures released today show, however, there is grave cause for concern that sex selective abortion is now happening on an increasing basis in this country. Evidence released this week confirms what many of us have been saying for some time – that the abortion legislation in this country needs to be revisited to clarify and confirm specifically that abortion on the ground of unborn child’s gender is illegal.
Legislation as currently drafted does not specifically prohibit abortion on the ground of an unborn child’s gender - in so many words - since this was never envisaged when the original Abortion Act was passed.
A review of the abortion legislation is now needed; it is the role of Parliament to undertake this and I am pressing for it.
We cannot allow the concept to take foothold that expecting a child of a particular gender is a sufficient cause of stress as to justify an abortion on the grounds of the danger to the mother’s mental health. This is quite simply discrimination, and we must ensure that no pressure is brought to bear on women to have a child of a particular sex and that this is confirmed as completely unacceptable in this country.
We have all seen what has happened in China over many years of sex selective abortion – as a result of the one child policy - and the distortion in the number of young men and young women there. We cannot stand by and allow this to happen in communities in this country.
It simply cannot be that an unborn child who is a girl is of less value than one which is a boy - or vice versa.”
