Abortion reform is long overdue, according to the MLC who guided new laws through the Legislative Council.

On Tuesday, the Abortion Reform Bill was approved fully by the upper chamber of the Manx parliament. It will now have to return to the House of Keys for approval of mostly technical amendments.

MLCs dealt with all of its clauses - including more than 70 proposed amendments - and then suspended rules so that they could take the third and final reading at the same sitting.

At that point, the historic vote to approve wide-reaching change was 8-1 in favour, with only Bishop Peter Eagles voting against.

Bill Henderson, the MLC in charge of guiding the bill through the upper chamber, said it would bring ’Manx law to where it should have been a long time ago’.

He added: ’It recognises equal rights, it recognises women’s rights and it recognises lots of other issues that are equally important.’

Not least among those issues was the woman’s right to choose, he said.

The Bishop failed with all of his tabled amendments, including attempts to reduce the time limits for abortion on request from 14 weeks to 12 weeks and for abortion in specified circumstances to be brought down from 15 to 24 weeks to 13 to 22.

He was also unsuccessful in a bid to prevent abortion being allowed on the grounds of ’serious impairment’ after 24 weeks. The Bishop raised fears of the implications this could have for unborn children with a disability.

He repeated concerns that not enough thought had been given to the rights of the unborn child.

The Bishop only gained a seconder for one of his amendments - meaning the others were rejected without any further debate. MLCs had previously argued that the issue of timescales and impairment had been dealt with by the House of Keys.

The one amendment that did gain a seconder was an attempt to re-word the clause that allows for conscientious objection among health staff. But that was defeated by five votes to four.

A number of technical amendments were approved, while Kerry Sharpe MLC tabled successfully a further amendment to ensure stringent rules and guidelines covering what happens to foetal remains.

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

Under the current Manx law, a termination is allowed in the island up to 24 weeks, but only where medical practitioners consider there is substantial risk the child will not survive birth, will die shortly afterwards or will be seriously handicapped.

Pregnancies resulting from rape, incest or sexual assault may be terminated up to 12 weeks, but women must provide an affidavit attesting to the cause of the pregnancy.

Terminations on social grounds are not permitted under the current law.

Campaigners say hundreds of women have been forced to either travel to England for a procedure or risk obtaining abortion pills via the internet, as a result of the current restrictive regime.

Due to the summer recess, the Bill will not become law before the autumn.