Last summer, the Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi introduced a clause to the Crime and Policing Bill that will decriminalise all abortions. Enshrining this ‘right’ into law will mean that a mother could end the life of a baby a week, a day or even an hour before it is due to be born, without facing legal consequences. The bill will go to the House of Lords this month.

If there had been proper debate over the proposal, rather than introducing it alongside 1,482 other amendments, parliamentarians might have spotted the flaw: the proposed legislation will enable sex-selective abortions. The NHS normally delays the point at which parents are entitled to know their child’s sex until the 20-week scan, shortly before abortion currently becomes illegal. As there will no longer be legal penalties for any abortions, there will no longer be any way to prevent parents from terminating a pregnancy once they find out the child is a girl.

Decriminalising abortion will make it impossible to prosecute women who end pregnancies on the grounds of sex

The practice of female infanticide is widespread throughout much of the world, most famously in China – where it dates back more than two millennia – but it also occurs in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Albania, Vietnam and Georgia. While there is some evidence to suggest that rates of female infanticide have begun to drop globally, it is still widespread. There are roughly 140 million fewer women because of sex-selective abortion and infanticide.

Britain has welcomed hundreds of thousands of migrants from........

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