There are moments in politics when the mask slips. When slogans of compassion, “safe, legal, and rare” start to rot, revealing something far more chilling.
Tuesday night was one of those moments, a night when 291 Labour MPs, joined by eight Conservative ones, voted for what is arguably the most extreme abortion measure in the history of this country: the decriminalisation of abortion up to birth.
Yes, up to birth. Not 12 weeks. Not 24. But right up until the point of crowning. And let’s call it what it is… the systematic removal of any legal barrier to killing babies who could survive outside the womb. This wasn’t some arcane procedural tweak. This was a moral earthquake. The shaking was felt in neonatal units, where babies born at 26 weeks are swaddled in wires and hope. And in homes like mine and yours, homes that once rocked premature babies to sleep.
And where were our so-called Conservative MPs? You’d expect this from the Labour benches. Their ideological marriage to anything that screams “progressive” (even when it involves literal infanticide) is as predictable as it is grotesque. But the real betrayal came not just from the red rosettes. It came from within our own ranks. From eight Tory MPs who should have stood up for life, but instead voted for death.
The Four Who Backed This Horror Unashamedly:
- Caroline Dinenage
- Andrew Mitchell
- Kit Malthouse
- Laura Trott
These four walked through the “Aye” lobby with heads held high, complicit in removing all remaining protection for the most vulnerable. These are people who would, in any other context, call for safety regulations, rigorous assessments, “duty of care.” Yet on this, the most irreversible of all decisions — death — they decided the state has no role. They didn’t blink.
And then there’s an equally rotten group in my opinion: the four MPs who voted both for and against the amendment. A political limbo dance so pathetic it would be comical if it weren’t so deadly serious. Vote both ways? What for? To fudge the record so constituents see what they want to see? To have it both ways when it comes time to face your conscience — or the electorate? It’s an insult to everyone, on all sides, who takes this issue seriously. It’s dishonesty wrapped in procedural cowardice.
Why not just abstain fully? Why this theatre of faux neutrality? You cannot “both-sides” the dismemberment of fully formed, viable babies. Pick a lane.
We were told this would be debated. It wasn’t. Less than two hours… that’s all it took to wipe away 50 years of legal safeguards. And no public consultation. No referendum. Just a quiet, casual annihilation of one of the last taboos. This Labour government are truly abhorrent.
This amendment, tabled by Tonia Antoniazzi, does more than strip unborn children of protections, it opens the door to dangerous late-term abortions managed outside clinical environments. It sets a legal precedent that life at 30, 35, 39 weeks is not worth defending. That viability is meaningless. That a mother’s womb is not a sanctuary but a legal vacuum.
We live in an age where our government will put you in prison for saying bad things on Facebook, but now thinks it’s “progressive” to allow the termination of a baby that could survive on its own. Orwell would’ve been too afraid to write it.
And so I ask, to the likes of Laura Trott, who wanted to be seen as a future party leader, to Kit Malthouse, who once styled himself a common-sense Tory, what part of this decision reflects conservatism? What part reflects humanity?
To Dr Luke Evans and Dr Ben Spencer, who know full well the science of gestation and viability, how do you reconcile this with the Hippocratic Oath? Or is that just another tradition we’re throwing under the bus?
To the MPs who chose convenience over conviction, please know this: we will not forget. We will not forget the silence, the betrayal, the moral shrug. You were asked to defend the most voiceless among us. And you failed.
History will not be kind. But neither will the electorate, once they realise what you have done.
I am not just disappointed. I am sickened. This isn’t politics as usual. This is the death of decency. And unless we demand accountability, it won’t be the last.
It’s why I set up the Great British PAC. Join us and let’s get these awful decisions reversed. Roll on 2029. We will be ready.
Claire Bullivant
