Question

To ask the Prime Minister, whether it is the Government's policy that decisions in Parliament relating to abortion should be subject to a free vote; and if he will instruct that the Department for International Development's practice paper, Safe and unsafe abortion, published in July 2011, should not be regarded as an expression of the Government's policy until its contents have been approved by the House in a free vote.

Issues on matters of conscience have, by tradition, been the subject of a free vote in the House of Commons. Issues relating to abortion in other countries are determined by respective Governments.