Table of Contents
Our Moderator Elect, Dr. Ian Brown, has called all churches to prayer and for members to take action with regards to 2 votes in the House of Commons next week.
1. ABORTION DECRIMINALISATION VOTE
Two extremely dangerous amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill are set to be debated and voted on in parliament on Tuesday 17th June, next week.
Amendment NC1, proposed by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, has the support of over 150 MPs. This amendment would decriminalise abortion right up to birth for any “woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.” This would mean that there are no legal repercussions for using abortion pills well beyond the legal limit of 10-weeks’ gestation. It would allow abortion for any reason right up to birth, including sex-selective abortions.
Amendment NC40, proposed by Stella Creasy MP, has the support of over 100 MPs. This amendment would completely decriminalise abortion right up to birth no matter how the abortion is carried out or for what reason. It would remove the sections of the Against the Person Act 1861 which give legal protection to an unborn child. It would also repeal the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929. It would make it much more difficult to prosecute an abusive partner who causes the death of an unborn child. It would effectively legalise infanticide. It would even make it difficult to prosecute someone who deliberately kills a baby during delivery.
Please contact your MP to ensure a vote against these amendments. If using the Right To Life form below, please customise the email form, changing the date to 17th June for the vote on the Crime and Policing Bill.
2. EUTHANASIA VOTE
Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill for England and Wales has had its second day of Report Stage in the House of Commons.
The crucial Third Reading vote – MPs’ final decision on whether to approve the Bill and send it to the House of Lords – is expected on Friday this coming week (20th June).
Please contact your MP this incoming week and ask them to make sure they are present to vote against this bill.
This is a defining issue for the morality of our country. A further undermining of the value of life is a serious thing.
Here are some points that have been suggested by the Christian Institute and Right to Life:
- Where assisted suicide has been allowed, vulnerable people feel pressured to end their lives for fear of becoming a burden on others. In Oregon, around half of those helped to kill themselves raise this concern.
- Our current laws against assisted suicide protect people in their darkest moments. Someone diagnosed with a terminal illness may immediately have feelings of despair and hopelessness, but given time, many come to terms with their illness and live fulfilled lives.
- The Bill lacks robust safeguards. It does not protect vulnerable people from being coerced or manipulated into choosing assisted suicide, or doing so because they feel like a burden on others.
- The final sign-off of an assisted suicide application by a High Court judge was repeatedly held out as the ultimate safeguard but has now been scrapped.
- The panel system to replace judicial oversight is supposed to include a psychiatrist and a social worker, but senior social workers and psychiatrists have warned there aren’t enough of them to fill these roles.
- The Bill is only supposed to apply to those who have a terminal illness. But in jurisdictions like Oregon, anorexia, diabetes and arthritis have been deemed eligible for assisted suicide.
- Once legalised, the eligibility criteria for assisted suicide always expand. Canada introduced assisted suicide in 2016. MPs there have already scrapped the requirement for a person’s death to be ‘reasonably foreseeable’, and voted for it to be widened to include those with mental illness.Scrutiny at both Committee and Report Stage has been rushed. Many MPs, including some who had tabled amendments, were unable to speak because of a lack of time.
- The Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists, Physicians and Pathologists have all raised serious concerns about the Bill since Committee Stage.
- It is clear that the Bill sponsor has chosen to bring her Bill back to MPs at Report Stage with a minimum of explicit safeguards to protect vulnerable people and without addressing the many problems with the Bill that had been raised previously. At the same time, she has removed her own flagship safeguard of High Court oversight, rendering the Bill weaker than that voted on at Second Reading.
- It is similarly noteworthy that a recent Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) members’ survey found a significant drop in its members’ support for assisted suicide compared to its previous survey in 2019 with 47.6% of members favouring opposition to assisted suicide and only 33.7% favouring support. An overwhelming proportion of palliative care doctors continue to oppose legalisation (https://apmonline.org/wp-content/uploads/APM-Position-Statement-on-Assisted-Dying-October-2024-v2.pdf).
- Despite the dubious claims of the Bill sponsor about Committee Stage, I have multiple grave concerns about the Bill’s scrutiny at Committee and the amended Bill as it returns to the House of Commons. In particular, I note that: Well over 300 amendments (http://archive.today/H9vu1) that sought to strengthen safeguards in the Bill and that would have protected vulnerable groups were rejected.
You can write to your MP by using the automated form below. Using your own words can make the email more effective.
3. SIGN THE PETITION
Only 28 MPs needed to change their minds after Second Reading to defeat it – several already have. That makes this fight winnable – but only if people like you take action in your constituency.
Your local MP could cast the deciding vote on the Bill, and your signature has real power.
A petition signed by a large number of people in your local constituency calling on your MP to vote against the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill will carry real weight.
If enough people in your local constituency speak up and sign the petition, it will be very persuasive in getting your local MP to turn up and vote NO when it really matters – at the crucial final vote on the Bill on 20 June.
Every single vote will count. The numbers are tight, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
A flood of local signatures to your MP could tip the balance and help stop this dangerous Bill in its tracks.
