Guernsey Press

States to debate abortion after delay motion fails

TODAY deputies will debate changes to the 24-year-old abortion law as a last chance effort to have the debate delayed was lost by one vote.

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(Picture by Adrian Miller, 28380780)

Health & Social Care wants to increase the time limit for on-island abortions from 12 weeks to 24 weeks and decriminalise the procedure so that it is governed by medical regulatory frameworks, not the criminal justice system.

In April, they postponed the debate until June as ‘everybody’s headspace was on Covid-19’ and the timing did not seem right.

At last month’s meeting, Deputies Jane Stephens and Jonathan Le Tocq called for the debate to be delayed further until July, but deputies overwhelmingly disagreed, by a majority of 30.

Since, they placed a sursis motion calling for HSC to delay the debate until no later than September 2021 for the committee to hold a ‘broader and more inclusive’ consultation.

During the consultation period, over 300 responses were submitted, with 66% agreeing the outdated abortion law needed to be reformed.

Sursis proposer Deputy Stephens challenged this, saying only eight responses came through in the time period that the proposals were being developed and would have allowed for any influence on the policy letter.

Other responses came after the policy letter had already been finalised.

‘This suris is to test members’ confidence that HSC has considered adequate consultation and that the proposals are conclusive and future-proof,’ she said.

Recognising that HSC were not going to be able to bridge the gap in beliefs about abortion, she said a delay would allow the committee to tie-off loose ends and clarify points in the policy which had confused some islanders.

Seconder Deputy Le Tocq firmly believed there are many people who had not been, or felt they had not been, heard.

‘I do think abortion is a woman’s issue, but I do not think it is only a women’s issue – I think there are other people and other considerations that have to be taken into account,’ he said.

Deputy Matt Fallaize said whenever the States are presented with a difficult decision, there tends to be a sursis motion as well.

While he hoped this one was not a case of engaging in displacement activity, he believed that abortion was a polarised, emotional issue and people with one opinion are not likely to change it in a couple of months.

Similarly, Deputy Peter Roffey said resorting to a delaying tactic seemed to be, for some members, a way to avoid talking about real, emotional, controversial reforms that they might not agree with.

Challenging the sursis and urging deputies to throw it out to begin debate on reforming the nearly 25-year-old law, HSC member Deputy Emilie McSwiggan said just because a few islanders did not understand at the time of the consultation that late abortions still would not be able to happen on-island, did not give sufficient reason to delay debating the proposed changes to the law any further.

‘We have spoken to very many experts and the fact that there has been such consensus on the right way forwards really ought to tell States members something.’

The sursis lost by one vote, 20 members voted against the delay motion and 19 voted for it.