The final full week of nominations for The Spectator’s Readers’ Representative Award has brought forth nominations for two female MPs on opposite sides of the abortion debate, Diane Abbott and Nadine Dorries.
Kate Smurthwaite applauds Abbott for tabling an amendment to the Human Fertilisation Embryology Bill which would allow women in Northern Ireland to have abortions. Smurthwaite says, ‘This would end the situation where 6,000 women a year are forced to save, borrow or steal £600 to £2,000 to travel to England to gain access to abortion services. It takes the bold view that a woman’s right to choose is just that — her right, and proposes that it apply uniformly to all women in the UK, ending 40 years of injustice.’ Smurthwaite concludes the amendment ‘could be the most important piece of legislation to affect women in this country for a generation’.
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