MPs win right to challenge Victorian law criminalising abortion

MPs have won the right to introduce a bill to parliament which would decriminalise abortion for the first time by repealing a law that dates back to Victorian times.

A ten-minute rule bill introduced by Diana Johnson, the Labour MP for Hull North, sought permission of the House to change two sections of a law passed in 1861, before women had the vote. It succeeded by 170 votes to 142, a margin of 32.

Johnson argued that the law was unfair and inappropriate in an age when women can and will access abortion pills by post because they want to be able to terminate their pregnancy in the privacy of their own home.

As the law stands, doing so is technically punishable by life imprisonment under sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act – both for the woman and for anyone, including a doctor, who help her.

Abortion is legal in restricted circumstances, which were laid down in the 1967 Abortion Act introduced by the then Liberal MP David Steel to stop women dying in large numbers as a result of backstreet abortions.

The 1967 legislation allows a termination before 12 weeks with the approval of two doctors and in the interests of the woman’s health. In rare circumstances including foetal abnormality, later abortions are permitted.

Johnson said in the debate that abolishing criminality need not change the current restrictions, which can be enshrined in regulations.

The new bill, which will be brought forward by a cross-party group of MPs, will be the first opportunity to rework the law on abortion since the 1967 act was passed.

MPs win right to challenge Victorian law criminalising abortion

Victorian abortion law ‘breaches human rights’

A campaign to push for abortion to be removed from the justice statutes and decriminalised is to be launched this month by the country’s newest political party.

Sophie Walker, leader of the non-partisan Women’s Equality party, said it was time that abortion was made a sexual health and human rights issue, rather than left languishing under “Victorian criminal law”, where a life prison sentence still exists for procuring a termination. This is a flagship policy for the party, which will hold its first conference in Manchester next weekend. It hopes that with pressure from its supporters, other political parties will take up the issue.

The current legislation governing abortion is the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which came into force decades before women had the vote.

Abortion is part of life in mainland Britain: one in three women will have an abortion before the age of 45, with the highest rate among 21-year-olds. Rates have remained fairly constant over the past few years, higher in England and Wales than in Scotland, with 197,906 Britons and 5,190 non-British residents having an abortion last year. About 98% are NHS-funded and the vast majority, 80%, carried out at less than 10 weeks pregnant.

Under the 1861 act, and as amended by the Abortion Act 1967, abortion remains a criminal offence; only cases that meet certain caveats are exempt from prosecution. Two doctors must sign to confirm that a woman’s or her unborn child’s health and welfare is at risk, resulting, say campaigners, in the law simply being circumvented in many cases. And it is also open to political interference. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service believes the rules work only because health professionals work around them.

The WE party has grown to more than 65,000 members and 65 regional groups since its inception last year. It fielded its first political candidates at local and regional elections this year, including for the London mayor.

“This is really about making it very clear that women’s healthcare rights are human rights,” said Walker. “That is why we want to debate this motion at our first conference and to put a focus on prioritising and funding sexual health and wellbeing. If you are denied control over your own body then you are denied so many other controls over your life. Any denial of reproductive rights is a form of violence against women, and the massive funding cuts ongoing in the UK are part of a real trend that is de-prioritising equality.”

Former Progressive Unionist party leader Dawn Purvis is on the advisory board of Marie Stopes International, which provides contraception and safe abortion services. She is to give a keynote speech at the WE party conference on the position in Northern Ireland, where several prosecutions are under way of women who have used the so-called “abortion pill”.

“The situation in Northern Ireland is different to mainland Britain in that, basically, a woman has to be about to die before she is allowed a termination,” Purvis said. “Rape or incest or foetal abnormality are not circumstances under which an abortion will be allowed. We’re seeing women being prosecuted and convicted as criminals – one was reported by her GP after she had gone to him for help, another is a woman being prosecuted for helping her daughter.

“But thankfully we are seeing more and more legal challenges – late last year we had a ruling that the stance of the Ministry of Justice was incompatible with international standards on human rights.”

Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, has tabled a 10-minute bill for the spring when she will also raise the issue of decriminalising abortion. She does not want to change time limits but wants medical procedures to be governed by clinicians, rather than the criminal law.

“That any woman procuring an abortion is potentially facing a prison sentence of life under legislation dating from 1861 is patently something that needs looking at carefully,” she said. “Decriminalising abortion, for both health professionals and for women, would put the issue with clinicians and health experts, where it belongs.”

Victorian abortion law ‘breaches human rights’

Outside regions in Victorian eating places to be a smoke-free of charge zone from mid-2017

Smoking will be banned in the outdoor dining locations of all eating places, cafes, get-away stores and licensed premises in Victoria, the state’s well being minister, Jill Hennessy, announced on Sunday.

But the ban will not consider effect until August 2017, with the government set to seek the advice of with well being and sector groups more than the coming months to flesh out the detail of the reforms.

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In accordance to the most not too long ago accessible statistics from the Victorian Cancer Council, about 13% of Victorians smoke, and about 4,000 lives are lost in the state every single yr due to smoking, costing the healthcare system $ two.4bn.

Its chief executive, Todd Harper, said the council had been advocating for the ban for many years, but that its power would come down to how well hospitality staff have been protected from tobacco smoke.

“We haven’t witnessed the detail yet, and that is due to the fact there is a consulation period,” Harper stated.

“Ultimately, how effective the smoke-free of charge laws are will be observed in how properly they protect hospitality employees from tobacco smoke, due to the fact they are the ones who invest the most time in these environments.

“We’re not concerned that it will take until 2017 to implement this ban, so prolonged as that time is well invested correctly consulting to make certain the legislation, when implemented, protects staff as successfully as achievable.”

Neighborhood assistance for smoke-totally free outside dining is higher. Cancer Council Victoria research showed 73% of Victorians assistance the ban. Smoking bans in enclosed eating places have been introduced in 2001.

Even so, opposition wellness spokeswoman, Mary Wooldridge asked why the outdoor smoking ban was taking the government so long to introduce, provided the Coalition announced the policy in excess of a year in the past when it was nonetheless in government.

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Greens MP Colleen Hartland described Wooldridge’s feedback as “hypocritical,” provided the Coalition voted against a private members’ bill launched by Hartland in 2012 to ban smoking in outdoor places. The bill did not get the numbers to pass by way of the residence at the time.

Hennessy stated the nearly two-12 months period amongst announcing the ban and implementing it was required so that organizations would have adequate time to put together for the alterations.

“We want to function with organizations and consult with them to make sure this important reform is launched and implemented properly,” she explained. “We don’t want to jeopardise jobs.”

However, it will put Victoria behind all other states. New South Wales final month implemented a smoking ban for all industrial outside dining regions, such as hotels, clubs, dining establishments and cafes. Queensland banned smoking in outside dining areas in 2006, and the ACT in 2010.

Earlier this year, the Victorian government brought forward bans on smoking inside 4m of the entrances to public hospitals and neighborhood well being companies, schools, childcare centres, kindergartens and preschools, and government buildings.

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Breaching the bans, which are enforced by nearby governments, can appeal to an on-the-spot fine of $ 152, with a optimum penalty of $ 758.

Professor of health policy at Curtin University and president of the Australian Council on Smoking and Well being, Mike Daube, stated with shut to 90% of the Australian population now non-smokers it was hard to see why Victoria was slow on implementing the outside dining ban.

“It isn’t rocket science – Victoria could basically adhere to the example of the other states in which this legislation has been in place for years,” Daube said.

“It is a concern that a two-12 months delay offers the tobacco business and its allies time to lobby for more delays and exemptions.”

Outside regions in Victorian eating places to be a smoke-free of charge zone from mid-2017

Unimmunised young children to be banned from kindergartens beneath Victorian program

Mother and father who really do not feel in vaccinating their youngsters will no longer be in a position to get them to childcare or kindergarten in Victoria under proposed reforms.

The state government is introducing legislation that will demand kids to be totally vaccinated before such attendance is permitted.

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The proposed law also closes a loophole that makes an exemption for mother and father who decide on not to vaccinate their kids on the grounds they are conscientious objectors.

Kids who can not be vaccinated for health-related causes will remain exempt.

“What we don’t accept is individuals who go all around myth-creating about the dangers of vaccination,” Victoria’s well being minister, Jill Hennessy, mentioned on Sunday.

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“The public overall health and wellbeing of the broader community has to get precedence towards the anti-vaccination movement.”

Youngsters not vaccinated against illnesses this kind of as measles and whooping cough put other kids and the higher local community at risk, wellness experts say.

In spite of a vaccination price of 92% for whooping cough in Victoria, the quantity of reported cases has increased by more than one,000 given that the preceding yr.

“Ultimately it is a parent’s phone in terms of how they reply, but we are not able to continue to see the alarming rise in diseases like whooping cough and measles, and not reply,” Hennessy said.

She is assured the “no jab, no play” policy will provide an incentive for parents to make sure their young children are vaccinated.

Unimmunised young children to be banned from kindergartens beneath Victorian program