Abortion: Offences against the Person Act Debate
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Ben Bradshaw
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Abortion: Offences against the Person Act
Ben Bradshaw Excerpts(11 months ago)
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Edward Argar
My hon. Friend highlights again that there are sincere and genuinely held views on both sides of this debate. Respect for those divergent views must characterise how we debate what is an extremely sensitive issue. This place, the heart of our democracy, is the right place for such views to be debated and discussed.
Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)
How is it possible that Roman Catholic Spain and Italy—home to the Vatican —have decriminalised abortion but we have not?
Edward Argar
The right hon. Gentleman will know that different approaches are taken across Europe—for example, the UK has a 24-week limit; in most European countries that is much lower, at 12, 13 or 14 weeks. There are differences of approach across European countries such as France. We are roughly in line with the Netherlands in terms of the time limit. I take his point, but there is genuinely a wide range of approaches across European countries on some of the specifics in this space.