Emily Pankhurst once championed the cause of women's emancipation, so Phyllis Bowman has championed the cause of the unborn. Twenty years ago her opponents in the Abortion Law Reform Association believed that with the passage of the Steel Act the fight was over. As abortion technology has spread many presumed that the pro-life groups would become the haunt of a few cranks and eccentrics. Thanks to SPUC, LIFE and CARE the pro-life movement has remained remarkably robust, even if separate, and continues to grow. I used my Mossley Hill speech to set out the current position on late abortions. No country in Western Europe allows abortions as late as we do. No account is taken of the sentience and humanity of the child. Why should we accept the notion that disability should be a disqualification from life? Abortion created as many problems as it solved. This is what I said:
'Earlier in the summer a ballot was held for the 1987 Private Members' legislation. Three or four hundred Members of Parliament usually enter this annual parliamentary lottery and the first half dozen have a realistic chance of seeing their bill debated and, occasionally, enacted. For each of the last eight years I have dutifully entered my name in the raffle book and have usually come in the bottom one hundred. This year I drew third prize. 'Over the summer I have carefully considered the many bills which I have been urged to introduce. Should the need ever arise, I probably now have enough bills for an entire Queen's Speech. The three front-runners were a bill to tackle empty housing; a bill to combat discrimination against AIDS victims; and a bill to limit late abortions. 'Shelter's empty housing bill had much to commend it, but in my judgement the government would defeat its clauses dealing with the private sector; while the scandal of empty housing in the public sector can be challenged at local authority level without legislation. 'The Terrence Higgins Trust made a powerful case to stop employment discrimination against patients diagnosed as HIV antibody positive. In the future there may well be a need for such legislation. However, the Trust were unable to produce present moment examples of such discrimination, and I am not at all convinced that precipitate legislation might not simply put ideas into employers' heads. In 1980 I introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill to prevent late abortions. This is the issue to which I have decided to return and on which I intend to introduce legislation. As this decision has a number of implications, Liberal colleagues have a right to know how and why I have reached this decision.