A CRUCIAL vote on changes to abortion laws was rushed through last week, according to Dumfries and Galloway MP John Cooper.
MPs voted to replace abortion legislation to stop women being prosecuted for ending their pregnancy.
The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill passed by 379 votes to 137 in Westminster.
And while the changes only affect women in England and Wales, this was the biggest shake-up around reproductive rights for almost 60 years.
Dumfries and Galloway constituency MP John Cooper was one of more than 100 Conservatives MPs who voted against the bill.
He said afterwards: “I am pro choice, but after only 46 minutes of debate in which only 13 MPs were able to speak, changes were rushed through which decriminalise terminations of healthy babies up to full term.
“Such significant changes to abortion laws should have been given more consideration and not been a mere adjunct to a Crime and Policing Bill.”
No vote was recorded for David Mundell, Conservative MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, and he was unavailable for comment.
Women who terminate their pregnancy outside the rules, for example after 24 weeks, will no longer be at risk of being investigated by police.
The law will still penalise anyone who assists a woman, including medical professionals, in getting an abortion outside the current legal framework.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi put forward the amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes.
MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.
The law in England and Wales states that abortion is illegal but allowed up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy and beyond that in certain circumstances such as if the woman’s life is in danger.
Women can also take medication at home to terminate their pregnancies under 10 weeks.
MP Antoniazzi flagged that nearly 99 percent of abortions happen before a pregnancy reaches 20 weeks, leaving just one percent of women “in desperate circumstances”.
She highlighted a series of cases where women had been arrested for illegal abortion offences, such as Nicola Packer, who was taken from hospital to a police cell after delivering a stillborn baby at home after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant.
She told jurors during her trial that she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than ten weeks.
MP Antoniazzi insisted “these women need care and support, and not criminalisation”.
