Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill — First Reading — Decriminalisation of Abortion — 13 Mar 2017 at 15:49

The majority of MPs voted to decriminalise abortion and for new regulation on the termination of pregnancies by medical practitioners.

MPs were considering the Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill[1].

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

  • That leave be given to bring in a Bill to regulate the termination of pregnancies by medical practitioners and to repeal certain criminal offences relating to such terminations; and for connected purposes.

The Bill had not been published at the time of the vote.

The intent of the "Bill" can be inferred from a contribution to the debate from Diana R. Johnson MP, who moved the motion to bring the Bill in. The following is an excerpt from Johnson's speech:[2]:

  • Due to the accessibility of medication now available online, women are more than ever before at risk of breaking the law, and a few prosecutions have already happened. I wonder if any of us truly believe that those women, in such difficult circumstances, really should be seen as criminals. Let me be clear that decriminalisation will not mean deregulation.

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Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con17 123 (+2 tell)043.0%
DUP0 80100.0%
Green1 00100.0%
Independent0 1033.3%
Lab147 (+2 tell) 6067.4%
LDem4 1055.6%
PC3 00100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
UUP0 1050.0%
Total:172 142054.0%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Victoria AtkinsLouth and HorncastleConaye
Crispin BluntReigateCon (front bench)aye
Peter BottomleyWorthing WestCon (front bench)aye
James DuddridgeRochford and Southend EastCon (front bench)aye
Michael FabricantLichfieldCon (front bench)aye
John HowellHenleyCon (front bench)aye
Robert JenrickNewarkConaye
Peter LilleyHitchin and HarpendenCon (front bench)aye
Jason McCartneyColne ValleyConaye
Nigel MillsAmber ValleyCon (front bench)aye
Andrew MitchellSutton ColdfieldConaye
Daniel PoulterCentral Suffolk and North IpswichCon (front bench)aye
Grant ShappsWelwyn HatfieldConaye
Alec ShelbrookeElmet and RothwellConaye
Anna SoubryBroxtoweCon (front bench)aye
Matt WarmanBoston and SkegnessCon (front bench)aye
Angela WatkinsonHornchurch and UpminsterConaye
Rosie CooperWest LancashireLab (minister)no
Rob FlelloStoke-on-Trent SouthLab (minister)no
Mary GlindonNorth TynesideLab (minister)no
Helen JonesWarrington NorthLab (minister)no
Mike KaneWythenshawe and Sale EastLab (minister)no
Rachael MaskellYork CentralLab (minister)no
John PughSouthportLDem (front bench)no

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