Women 'don't have absolute right of bodily autonomy' says Tory MP after Roe v Wade ruling

28 June 2022, 22:52

Women do not have "absolute right of bodily autonomy", a Tory MP has claimed amid anger at the US Supreme Court's ruling on abortion.

The highest court in America overturned the past Roe v Wade judgement that protected abortion rights across the country, allowing states to impose restrictions.

Anger and protests erupted after the decision in the US after the ruling while Boris Johnson previously said the court ruling was a backwards step.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger said in the House of Commons: "They think that women have an absolute right to bodily autonomy in this matter, whereas I think in the case of abortion that right is qualified by the fact that another body is involved.

"I would offer to members who are trying to talk me down that this is a proper topic for political debate.

"And my point to the frontbench is I don't understand why we are lecturing the United States on a judgment to return the power of decision over this political question to the states, to democratic decision-makers, rather than leaving it in the hands of the courts."

He was previously among 61 Tories to vote against an amendment that could have allowed more access to abortion in Northern Ireland.

Labour MP Stella Creasy told Mr Kruger that abortion was "fundamentally for many of us a human rights issue".

"Currently in the UK, only women in Northern Ireland have their constitutional right to an abortion protected as a human right, but we can change that," she said.

MPs had been discussing the Supreme Court ruling.

Read more: 'Women's lives at risk': Biden blasts 'un-American' US Supreme Court anti-abortion ruling

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Anger quickly erupted in the US in the wake of the decision last week, as some abortion clinics shut their doors.

The Arizona State Senate was evacuated over the disorder, with police having to use tear gas on crowds that surrounded the building.

President Joe Biden said after the verdict: "Itss not hyperbole to suggest a very solemn moment. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognised.

"They didn’t limit it. They simply took it away. That’s never been done to a right so important to so many Americans.

"But they did it. And it's a sad day for the court and for the country."