Labour’s Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry MP, has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) calling for an “urgent review” of the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) not to prosecute two doctors who organised illegal sex-selective abortions.
The CPS said that even though it found enough evidence against the doctors for “a realistic prospect of conviction,” prosecution would not be in the “public interest” as the cases could be brought before the General Medical Council.
Ms Thornberry said in her letter:
“The provisions of the Abortion Act 1967 are crystal clear. The conduct of abortions for reasons not stated in that Act is a criminal offence, not just a regulatory one.
“To decide not prosecute because a regulator can hear the matter instead is to disapply the law and undermine the will of Parliament”.