Dorries abortion amendment defeated in House of Commons

MPs will be asked to vote again following the results of a consultation into abortion counselling MPs will have a fresh vote on abortion before the next general election when the government presents the findings of a consultation into the system of counselling for women with unwanted pregnancies. An attempt to strip abortion providers of their role in counselling women was heavily defeated in the House of Commons on Wednesday, by 368 votes to 118, after a split between the original supporters of the amendment. But Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP who tabled the amendment, declared she had “won the war” after the health minister Anne Milton announced that the “spirit” of her plans would be embodied in a consultation. MPs will be asked to vote on any changes to the system of counselling when the results of the consultation are presented to parliament. The Dorries amendment would have stripped non-statutory abortion providers such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) from offering counselling to women. This was designed to provide greater opportunities for independent counsellors, some of whom are influenced by pro-life groups, to provide counselling. NHS abortion providers would still be free to offer counselling. MPs voted by a majority of 250 to reject the amendment after Dorries lost the support of her co-sponsor, the former Labour minister Frank Field. He called on Dorries not to force a vote after Milton said the government intended to bring forward new proposals on counselling. Dorries won the support of three cabinet ministers – Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, Liam Fox, the defence secretary, and Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary. George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband voted against the amendment. Downing Street said Cameron would have voted against but had to attend a meeting in No 10 with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council. The amendment was defeated so heavily because Milton impressed some pro-life MPs by outlining details of the consultation on counselling. The health minister said: “The government is … supportive of the spirit of these amendments and we intend to bring forward proposals for regulations accordingly, but after consultation. Primary legislation is not only unnecessary but would deprive parliament of the opportunity to consider the detail of how this service would develop and evolve.” Dorries hailed the announcement from Milton as a sign of victory. She told the BBC: “We lost the battle but we have won the war.” A senior source at the Department of Health said that any changes would have to be approved by MPs in a free vote. The source said the changes would not change the abortion act. But Mark Pritchard, secretary of the Tory 1922 committee who supported the Dorries amendment, said that a wider vote on abortion should be held. “This was a good result considering the amount of misinformation and disinformation put out by opponents of the amendment and by the whips’ narks. Many colleagues have said to me that a wider debate on abortion and term limits needs to take place in this parliament.” Milton’s announcement about the consultation came towards the end of a scratchy debate in which Dorries said Cameron had initially encouraged her. Dorries claimed that the prime minister had advised her on the wording of her amendment by saying that she should describe abortion counsellors as independent. Dorries said: “I went to see the prime minister regarding this amendment and he was very encouraging. In fact it was at the prime minister’s insistence that I inserted the word ‘independent’. I attended a meeting at the Department of Health and at that meeting it was decided what the outcome, the process that would be implemented, to make this a reality.” Dorries claimed that Cameron changed his mind under pressure from Nick Clegg, after the deputy prime minister was lobbied by the former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris. Dorries said: “Basically the Liberal Democrats, in fact a former MP who lost his seat in this place, is blackmailing our prime minister. Our prime minister has been put in an impossible position regarding this amendment. Our health bill has been held to ransom by a former Liberal Democrat MP.” A senior Lib Dem source dismissed her allegation: “That is utter rubbish. [Nick] doesn’t need Evan to tell him the problems with her amendment.” The defeat was welcomed by bpas. Ann Furedi, its chief executive, said: “Bpas is pleased to see Nadine Dorries’s amendment so overwhelmingly rejected. We look forward to being able to focus our efforts on the issues which pose a genuine problem for women considering ending a pregnancy.” Dorries insisted that she did not want to restrict access to abortion. “I do not want to return to the days of back-street abortionists,” she said. “I am pro-choice. Abortion is here to stay.” The MP said it was wrong for abortion providers to counsel women with unplanned pregnancies. “It must be wrong that the abortion provider, who is paid to the tune of £60m to carry out terminations, should also provide the counselling if a woman feels strong or brave enough to ask for it. If an organisation is paid that much for abortions, where is the incentive to reduce them?” Diane Abbott, the shadow public health minister, said: “This amendment is a shoddy, ill-conceived attempt to promote non-facts to make a non-case – namely that tens of thousands of women every year are either not getting counselling that they request or are getting counselling that is so poor that only new legislation can remedy the situation. In matters of this kind, if legislation is the answer then you have almost certainly asked the wrong question.” NHS reforms offer ‘opportunities’ The reforms of the NHS present “huge opportunities” for the private sector, a health minister said yesterday. In a speech to the Independent Healthcare Forum, Lord Howe said it should not matter “one jot” who provides care to NHS patients as long as it was free at the point of delivery. Private companies, he said, would do well under the plans as long as they can offer patients high quality services that compete favourably with current NHS care. He said it would be illegal for any commissioner or the government to favour any one sector – NHS or private – over the other. Lord Howe said a level playing field was being created and competition was based on quality of outcomes, not price. It will be “the best providers, private or NHS, that will prosper, and it will be patients that benefit most” under the plans, he said. Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, said: “It is clear that the government does want to break up the NHS and get more private sector involvement. Patients do care deeply whom they are seen by. They do not like the thought of private providers making profits from care.” PA Abortion Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.