Member

Finally—this has been addressed on a number of occasions by other Peers, so I will not go into the details —I think that this is quite dangerous. It increases the opportunities for coercion of women in late-term pregnancy. At the very least, as the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, indicated, it increases the risk of sex-based abortion. We have seen what has happened in Australia and Canada where this has been the case and that is something we have to be very scared of. It is somewhat regressive of society if we move to a point where we say that, in some cases, a girl’s life is not worth the same as a baby boy’s life. That smacks of the eugenics of the late 19th century or early 20th century. We need to take a firm line on the issue of sex-based abortion.