(3 years, 6 months ago)
Lords ChamberI call the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton.
We must ensure that these issues are well examined. We cannot be content with the thousands of children who go neglected and abandoned in our cities and streets every year.
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown? No? I therefore call the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud.
My Lords, one of the concerns with these regulations is that they make provision for abortion for non-fatal disability up to birth—something that, as we have just heard, 78 Members of the Assembly voted against this week. There are so many ways in which these regulations are concerning but, given all that we have been focused on in the last few months around protecting lives equally, it is extraordinary to me that the Government should present such a discriminatory provision, which is in direct violation of paragraph 85 of the CEDAW report. Will my noble friend the Minister explain how he will ensure that these regulations will not enable abortion on the basis of non-fatal disability to birth, and, as importantly, that they do not perpetuate a stereotype?