Heidi Allen close to tears as she recalls publicly talking about abortion

During a speech in the House of Commons last year the MP talked about how she had had an abortion

Heidi Allen has spoken about her decision to talk about having an abortion in the House of Commons last year.

The MP for South Cambridgeshire, interim leader of the newly-formed Independent Group, appeared on BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Monday, on which a clip was shown of a speech she made in June during a debate on reforming abortion laws in Northern Ireland, where terminating a pregnancy is illegal in almost every circumstance.

In the speech, Ms Allen publicly revealed she’d had an abortion and used her experience to illustrate the need for reform. She described her decision to have an abortion as “incredibly hard”.

Watching the clip back, the former Tory MP appeared to be close to tears. But Ms Allen explained that she doesn’t regret opening up about her abortion because it’s part of her role “to say things that need saying”.

She added: “But you compromise your own kind of private space by doing it.”

When asked by the presenter whether or not she thinks it was the right decision to talk publicly about her experience, Ms Allen recalled the “overwhelming support” she received from women and men around the UK.

“Particularly in Northern Ireland, which of course is what the debate was centred around,” she added, “it was absolutely the right thing because it gave them a fighting chance”.

Ms Allen went on to say that the role of a politician is to be able to “connect with people” because this is crucial for building trust between them and the public.

“If we haven’t had the same experiences in life and we’ve lived in a perfect separate bubble, then how will people trust us?” she concluded.