Abortion reform campaigners say they understand why the new laws will not be ready before October.

In the Legislative Council on Tuesday, Bill Henderson confirmed the Abortion Reform Bill was not ready for a first reading, following its approval by the House of Keys last week.

As our sister paper the Isle of Man Examiner revealed, an updated version of the bill, incorporating many amendments plus some new clauses that were brought in as part of the extensive scrutiny it underwent from MHKs, was needed.

Ramsey MHK Dr Alex Allinson, the man who guided the bill through the Keys, said October was likely to be the earliest the bill could become law. Mr Henderson agreed with that timescale.

A spokesman for the Campaign for Abortion Law Modernisation said: ’CALM is disappointed that Bill Henderson MLC was not able to move the first reading of Abortion Reform Bill in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, but we understand that this is purely for practical reasons.

’In order to be scrutinised in detail by LegCo, the draft bill must be clear, complete and, as Mr Henderson said, "workable", and so we are grateful for the work being put in by the team of drafters and the attorney general to confirm it complies with human rights legislation, and that the impact on existing Isle of Man laws is being assessed in full.’

The spokesman added that CALM was ’confident in the support for reform from the general public and from our politicians, and that the Abortion Reform Bill will be passed by Tynwald and receive royal assent as soon as is possible’.

Mr Henderson said that, following the many amendments and new clauses added to the bill, pus checks carried out of Dr Allinson and drafters, a new version of the bill was called for.

The MLC added that other issues that were raised during the Keys deliberations would need to be addressed.

’Concerns - and I need these to be allayed for myself to start with - with regard to the use of the definition of "health" within the bill, and also there is a point with regard to human rights issues,’ he added.

’There are still some interpretation issues with regard to that as to which is the right one in relation to the bill, and that is being checked out as we speak.’

Checks on how the law, when approved, would work with other legislation, were also taking place.

’In my view, the Legislative Council needs to know the answers to these questions in advance of the commencement of any readings of this bill,’ he said.

’Council needs the reassurances from me, as the mover, that we do indeed have a workable and correct version for the legislative review, which is critical for the process we will be undertaking.’

He added that he was ’keen to get on with’ the bill, but consideration would not be rushed.

’We will do our job correctly and to the best of our abilities.’

The first reading is now likely to take place on May 22.

Attorney General John Quinn confirmed the process involved.

He said: ’The draft bill, in its current form, is with the (UK) Ministry of Justice for their review, but we will not get any formal feedback before the first reading.

’They will let us have some initial comments, but they will await the final bill, as approved by LegCo, before actually expressing their final conclusions, so we are not going to have any extreme comfort from that.

’The process is that, if Legislative Council passes the bill, with any amendments they may make, which then might be approved by the House of Keys, I then have to sign off on the issue of the human rights challenges that could be there, and it is only at that point in time that the Ministry of Justice will consider that.’

Under the bill, abortion would be permitted upon request up to 14 weeks, under specified circumstances during the 15-24-week period, and in certain emergency situations after 24 weeks. Provision has also been added to create ’access zones’ around medical centres to protect women and medics from harassment.