Still-Birth (Definition) Bill [HL]

Baroness Barker Excerpts

Friday 4th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barker (LD)]

My Lords, I will speak very briefly in the gap, just to make one point. I have always been very supportive of the work of my noble friend on baby loss certificates. I have supported, for many years, the rights of people who have suffered baby loss, and supported adoptive parents to have better provision in employment rights. Our employment rights on these subjects are way out of date.

My concern is solely about the mandatory nature of the recording and about those people who, for whatever reason, between 20 to 24 weeks, have to make the always difficult choice to have a termination. It is never a decision made lightly. It is often very difficult.

I listened with great care to what my noble friend said, and I was very moved by her understanding that some people who undergo termination late in a pregnancy wish to be included in the recognition she is talking about. I just have a concern that there are some quite vulnerable people who end up in that position for whom the public declaration that they have had to make that decision and go through that might not be advisable, or indeed might be quite dangerous. Therefore, I would like us to be absolutely sure that we are not going to force people for whom it is not the right decision to have to make that public declaration. I take the right reverend Prelate’s point; it does not matter where it happens, it is about the nature of the declaration and the support which follows from it.

I have no doubt that we are moving towards being a much more compassionate and understanding society in this regard. That is partly to do with the fact that medical care for women at that stage of pregnancy is advancing. I do not want to put anything in the way of women or doctors which would in any way inhibit their right to choose the right path as or for an individual woman in that case. So I suggest that we hold back on making this a mandatory scheme until we are absolutely sure that we are not jeopardising those women.