00:00Because Miriam, I know, has got incredibly strong feelings. Hi, Miriam, about this abortion story.
00:07I mean, it just seems so. So now in Britain, if you am wrong about this,
00:13if you wanted to abort your child at eight months, three weeks, you could do it.
00:19Yes, a woman would be lawfully allowed to terminate her own pregnancy at eight weeks,
00:25eight months or even nine months or even during birth and not face criminal prosecution.
00:32And I think a lot of people are pretty shocked that MPs have done this.
00:35Just one percent of the public support abortion to birth. It wasn't in anybody's manifesto.
00:41Nobody talked about this before the election. And a couple of MPs have introduced this amendment into a bill.
00:47It's completely unrelated, a bill about policing and crime.
00:50So I think many people will find this very, very shocking.
00:53And I think that the arguments put forward by those who seek to decriminalise abortion is that women should not face prosecution
01:01when they're at a vulnerable point. There might be a reason why they've ended the pregnancy.
01:06And of course, I think we can all emphasise with that.
01:08But there's no point having a law if there aren't consequences for breaking it.
01:12And I think we can see that if you look at small boats or cannabis or shoplifting,
01:16which have all effectively been decriminalised. And guess what? We see a lot more of it.
01:20And I'm afraid that is what we're going to see with these dangerous late term abortions.
01:24Do you think they're murder or infanticide, I suppose, is the technical term?
01:29Well, I think it is hard to conclude otherwise, because the moment a baby is born,
01:35if you killed that baby, that would be infanticide and you'd be imprisoned for life.
01:39And it doesn't make biological or ethical sense that moments before that,
01:44you could kill that same child and it be lawful. That doesn't make any sense.
01:49And I think what's if we look at the example of other jurisdictions where they have done this decriminalised abortion to birth.
01:57So the three there are three main examples, New Zealand, Victoria and Australia and Canada.
02:01They've all seen a dramatic rise in late term abortions.
02:04And if you think about what actually has to happen to the baby in that circumstance, it still has to be delivered.
02:10They attempt to kill it before birth, but it's not always successful.
02:14Some babies are born alive and then left to die.
02:17And what actually happens to the baby in that circumstance is horrific.
02:21And everybody's supportive of women and women's rights.
02:24And there's obviously a strong pro-choice movement in this country.
02:27But there is a baby involved.
02:28And the vast majority of people think that beyond the 24 week point, when a baby is fully viable outside the womb,
02:36it is it is immoral and frankly barbaric to end its life.
02:40Yeah. I mean, and where has this come from?
02:44Has this literally come from a couple of MPs just just dropping in?
02:49Because I did see an interesting tweet about this, which was that basically Labour has used his whopping great big majority
02:56to push through unbelievably drastic social change in this sense that was never in its manifesto.
03:02And I thought this is the kind of thing I'm not, you know, OK, we've had a referendum with mixed results last time for a lot of people.
03:09And the way that was enacted was a bit appalling.
03:11But it is not the kind of thing we should have a referendum on, really.
03:14Well, I think that's right. When MPs are seeking to do something that's so out of step with public opinion
03:20and has not been put in any manifesto, so there's been no public say on it at all, I'd agree.
03:26But I know I think you've put your your finger on it over Brexit.
03:29This is another example of MPs being incredibly out of step with public opinion.
03:35Brexit is an example. Illegal immigration.
03:37The grooming gangs, of course, at net zero, where Parliament has such different views to the general public.
03:44That actually they are now using that power to impose things on the public that are against the public will.
03:51And this is the problem with free votes, because this vote was a conscience vote.
03:55MPs can vote however they like, even though it's part of a broader government bill.
03:59They can vote however they like, which means MPs can choose not to vote.
04:02They can choose not to speak. And no political party or government takes a responsibility.
04:07They can just say nothing to do with us. This was brought by back benches.
04:10And I think that's quite dangerous.
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