London Bishop Sarah Mullally, former Chief Nursing Officer of the United Kingdom and the Church of England’s lead bishop for health and social care, pleaded with members of Parliament not to usher in new levels of later-term abortions and state-approved suicides, before they did so.
On abortion, on June 20 members of Parliament amended laws from 1861 and 1929 to say that “no offense is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.”
On euthanasia, the House of Commons voted June 20 to allow terminally ill people over age 18 in England and Wales, who are deemed to have less than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death. This bill doesn’t apply to Northern Ireland and Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament will soon debate a similar measure.
Bishop Mullally wrote that women should not be prosecuted for having abortions. “However, decriminalizing abortion can at the same time inadvertently undermine the value of unborn life,” she wrote on June 20.
“The amendment passed to the Crime and Policing Bill may not change the 24-week abortion limit, but it undoubtedly risks eroding the safeguards and enforcement of those legal limits. Women suffering from coercion, or those who are victims of sexual or domestic abuse, would be the most vulnerable to the proposed change, which does not consider improvements to abortion care, nor address the inadequacies of the ‘pills by post’ assessments.”
She added: “Considering any fundamental reform to this country’s abortion laws should not be done via an amendment to another Bill. There should be public consultation and robust Parliamentary process to ensure that every legal and moral aspect of this debate is carefully considered and scrutinized. We need a path that supports women, not one that puts them and their unborn children in the way of greater harm.”
In her concerns about Parliament’s abortion law, Mullally was joined by 200 clergy, including the Rt. Rev. Stephen Conway, Bishop of Lincoln; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Jonathan Gibbs, Bishop of Rochester; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Emma Ineson, Bishop of Kensington; the Rt. Rev. Philip North, Bishop of Blackburn; the Rt. Rev. Stephen Race, Bishop of Beverley; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Volland, Bishop of Birmingham; and the Rev. Dr. Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester.
On euthanasia, she wrote: “If enacted, this legislation would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a post code lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to the most vulnerable. It does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying. And it would mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but shockingly only funds around one third of palliative care.
“Every person is of immeasurable and irreducible value, and should be able to access the care and support that they need—a principle that I know is shared by those of all faiths and none.
“We must oppose a law that puts the vulnerable at risk and instead work to improve funding and access to desperately needed palliative care services.”
Julia Lopez, Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, wrote in The Spectator that she shared many of Mulally’s concerns in a column on June 24:
“A woman will now be able to end her pregnancy herself—beyond existing limits and at any stage up to birth—without legal consequence. It is a profound change that leaves the unborn child and women themselves extraordinarily vulnerable. The combination of the rushed decriminalization amendment with the ‘pills by post’ regime is highly dangerous. This temporary regime was imposed during the pandemic but made permanent after another last-minute parliamentary ambush. It means that women can access tablets to abort a baby in the womb at ten weeks’ gestation through just a phone or video call with a medic. Evidence now suggests that these pills have on several occasions got into the hands of abusive partners or been taken by women well beyond ten weeks, with grim results. The tiny number of criminal investigations of women that have ensued have been used as justification for last week’s sweeping amendments.”
Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
