His Bills seeks to outlaw all abortion except where the mother’s life is at risk or where the pregnancy was due to rape. The Bill would make it an imprisonable offence for someone to carry out an abortion in any other circumstances.

Access to safe, legal abortion is a crucial issue for women. There is no completely effective contraceptive method and women will always need to control their fertility and their lives. 

Abortion is not available on demand. UK law does not allow abortion on request and women face serious obstacles every day in accessing abortion services. 

Women’s right to choose on abortion is consistently supported by an overwhelming majority of people in Britain. Polls show over three quarters – 76% of people - support women’s right to abortion. 

This Bill to turn the clocks back and force women to seek life-threatening back street abortions will struggle to find any serious support at all. In countries where abortion is illegal, tens of thousands of women die every year as a result of unsafe abortions. 

Mr Robertson’s Bill only serves to highlight how extreme and vociferous the minority anti-choice lobby really is and how little concern they have for women’s reproductive health and lives.’ 

ENDS 

For further information and interviews please contact Anne Quesney, Abortion Rights Director on 020 7278 5539

Notes to editor: 

1. Abortion Rights is the only abortion focussed campaigning and advocacy organisation in the UK. We lead the campaigns to defend and extend abortion rights and provide a pro-choice voice to the media.

2. Abortion Rights is campaigning to: 

* Oppose any restrictions to women’s current rights and access to abortion 

* Liberalise the current UK abortion law and make abortion available on request in the first three months and with one doctor’s signature thereafter

* Improve access to, and experience of, abortion – ensure that all women in the UK have equal access to safe, legal and free abortion.

3. Abortion in the UK 

* One in three women has an abortion in her lifetime 

* 76 per cent of the British population support a woman’s right to choose. 

* Abortion laws in the UK are more restrictive than in almost every other European country, where abortion on request is legal in the first three months of pregnancy 

* Abortion has been legal in Britain since 1967, but only by permission of two doctors and in restricted circumstances 

* Ten per cent of GPs consider themselves to be conscientious objectors and frequently refuse to grant women an abortion, despite General Medical Council guidelines. 

* A quarter of women having abortions in England and Wales have to pay for them - there are no public funds available specifically to help poorer women in these circumstances 

4. Laurence Robertson is the Conservative Party MP for Tewkesbury. 

* Robertson was drawn 20th out of 20 in the ballot for Private Member’s Bills for this session of Parliament. 

* His Bill is very unlikely to be given sufficient time on the floor of the Commons to make any progress to becoming law.