chair RB this motion would remove the
possibility of courts imposing criminal
penalties for illegal abortions
this is unnecessary and unhelpful this
campaign is based in part on the false
premise that women seeking ordinary
abortions are living under the fear of
arrest and prosecution this is simply
not the case one in three women in the
UK has had an abortion
clearly one in three women have not been
prosecuted in fact in the past two years
there have been just two convictions
both involved rare and distressing
scenarios the first involved a man who
had attacked a pregnant woman and caused
her to miscarry the second involved a
woman who caused her own abortion at 32
weeks
furthermore the lobbyists behind this
motion say that we should trust women
well according to polling carried out by
comres just last month only 1% of
women support the abortion limit being
raised above the current limit of 24
weeks as this motion proposes 70% of
women want the upper limit lowered to at
least 20 weeks in fact 65% of women feel
that criminal law plays an essential
role in protecting patients against
medical malpractice 77% feel that
doctors should be required by new
legislation to verify in person that a
patient seeking an abortion is not under
pressure from a third party to undergo
the abortion if we trust women then
let's actually listen to them women want
more support and more protection
furthermore within six days over 1,500
doctors and medical students have signed
a letter requesting that the BMA
rejected this motion we must not appear
as an extreme lobbying group rather the
collected national representative body
that we are RB this proposal isn't needed
and isn't wanted so please reject
littles two to six of this motion
