‘Absolutely Insane’: UK Bill Decriminalizing Abortion Up to Birth Sparks Fury as Pro-Life Leader Warns of ‘Monstrous’ Trend Sweeping Europe
A controversial clause advancing through Britain’s Parliament that would effectively decriminalize abortion up until birth has ignited a firestorm of criticism, with one prominent pro-life leader warning the legislation represents not medical necessity but “a desire to kill” that could trigger an “unfortunate trend throughout Europe.”
The Crime and Policing Bill’s Clause 208, now in its final stages in the House of Lords with a crucial vote expected as early as Wednesday, would remove all criminal penalties for women in England and Wales who end their own pregnancies at any stage—shattering the current 24-week legal threshold that has governed most abortions in the nation. While the provision would shield women from investigation, arrest, or prosecution even days before delivery, doctors and others who assist in late-term abortions without medical necessity would still face prosecution, creating what critics describe as a legal and ethical chasm that prioritizes maternal autonomy over viable human life.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, 40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney did not mince words about the clause’s implications, describing it as “absolutely absurd” legislation seemingly materializing “out of nowhere” in a continent typically “far more conservative on abortion than the United States.” Carney pointed to the biological reality that babies at 40 weeks are “completely viable,” arguing that the bill abandons even the left’s traditional reliance on viability as a moral compass. “The left built an entire movement on being able to survive outside the womb with viability,” Carney said. “Then, as science and medicine progressed, viability changed… Nobody’s ever said it was 40 weeks. They’ve all said, of course, you can survive outside the womb. This is just a desire to kill, it seems, at 40 weeks.” He warned that while “people aren’t monsters” seeking 40-week abortions, the legislation’s true danger lies in normalizing the procedure entirely—eroding the stigma around earlier abortions by creating a “mentality that abortion is not a big deal” when the state sanctions it even “the day before birth.”
As amendments circulate to either remove the clause entirely, carve out exceptions for late-term procedures, or add in-person consultation requirements to curb “pills-by-post” services, Carney dismissed such compromises as insufficient when facing what he called “monsters” who “write these bills”—typically “very liberal White people” detached from common sense and medical reality. The bill’s progression through the House of Lords this week will determine whether it returns to the Commons for final approval before receiving Royal Assent, but Carney’s warning echoes beyond British shores: that once the unthinkable becomes law, the unthinkable becomes normalized, and Europe’s remaining restrictions may soon follow England’s lead into what he describes as a dark and “insane” new frontier.
