The House of Lords has voted to allow abortion up to birth.
Last June, MPs had voted to support decriminalising the practice.
That came as part of an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
The amendment included a clause to change the law to decriminalise abortions for any reason, including if women did not want to have a child of a certain sex – and at any point up to and during birth.
Tory peer Baroness Monckton then tabled an amendment to remove the “radical proposal” from the draft law.
But on Wednesday night, peers voted this down by 185 votes to 148, majority 37.
Campaigners have warned the clause will lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home.
Polling by Savanta ComRes has also found that just one per cent of Britons support abortion up to birth.
PICTURED: Pro-life campaigners protest outside the House of Lords on Wednesday ahead of the vote
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But proponents said the amendment in general would remove the threat of “investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment” of any woman who terminates her own pregnancy.
On Wednesday, peers also rejected amendment 425, tabled by Baroness Stroud, which would have reinstated in-person consultations with a medical professional before abortion pills can be prescribed.
Under the current law it is legal to take the pills at home if a woman is fewer than 10 weeks pregnant.
But the Lords rejected the bid to move back to compulsory in-person consultations by 191 votes to 119, majority 72.
The ‘pills by post’ scheme allows women to access abortion medication without seeing a doctor | GETTY
Parliament’s upper chamber also backed a move to pardon women who have previously been convicted of terminating their own pregnancy.
Peers supported this by 180 votes to 58, majority 122.
Writing for GB News yesterday, former Health Minister Maria Caulfield said that passing the amendment would mean “infanticide… would become possible with no legal consequence”.
She also warned that “our society will be damaged and its moral credibility greatly diminished” by the move.
While Catherine Robinson, spokeswoman for pro-life group Right to Life, said the “abortion up to birth” clause is “one of the most extreme pieces of legislation ever to pass the House of Commons and the House of Lords”.
“It is a travesty that such an enormous and terrible legislative change, which will directly endanger the lives of unborn babies well beyond the point at which they would be able to survive outside the womb, as well as the lives of their mothers, has been allowed to happen,” she added.
“There is no public appetite for this change, and it was not part of the Government’s manifesto.”
Abortion in England and Wales currently remains a criminal offence but is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother’s life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability.
Under the amendment voted through in the Commons last year, it would remain the case that medics or others who facilitate an abortion after the 24-week time limit could still face prosecution if the change becomes law.