I was never a huge Coronation Street fan growing up. I generally didn’t find the storylines dramatic enough. My main memory was when my dad had to go cold turkey on it. He’d become a Coronation Street addict and almost had an accident rushing back from work to catch the latest episode. From what I remember, dropping Corrie was almost as hard for him as giving up smoking!

From that moment, Corrie was no longer a feature of the Hunt household, but from time to time I have dipped in on various storylines. One storyline I do remember from a few years ago involved a 14-year-old, Amy Barlow, who had an abortion without her parents’ knowledge. I recall there being a public backlash as a result. I, like much of the public, was completely unaware that there is no legal requirement for parents to be informed before their daughter, aged 15 or younger, has an abortion. I assumed, wrongly, that there would have been.

I raise this because, over the past few weeks, the issue has come to the fore, following calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. A number of MPs have called for the law to change to introduce a legal requirement for parents to be informed before a girl aged 15 or under has an abortion. This directly relates to the grooming gangs issue because some of the underage girls who were the victims of these gangs became pregnant and were forced to have abortions.

Most parents would ask probing questions if they discovered their underage daughter wanted an abortion

At the heart of the recent grooming gangs debate has been how aspects of such an appalling scandal were seemingly covered up for so long. Questions have rightly been asked about how such barbarism was concealed so effectively and how it was that people in authority were apparently able to turn a blind eye.

The grim reality is that the current laws on abortion in relation to parental notification played a part in this nightmare. There is a strong case to be made that the current law made it easier for the perpetrators of these appalling crimes to conceal what they did. 

Other countries such as Portugal, Italy and Spain have firm laws in place regarding parental notification and for good reason, because, if a minor has become pregnant, something untoward is likely to have happened. There is evidence that these crimes have taken place in as many as fifty towns and cities, and that some young girls have become pregnant as a direct consequence of sexual abuse. Abusers will have gone to extreme measures to conceal their crimes and this task would have been made far easier by our current abortion law, which does not require parental notification.

Most parents I can think of would ask some pretty probing questions if they discovered that their underage teenage daughter had become pregnant and was considering an abortion. I struggle to think of any cases where this would not be appropriate. If parental notification laws had been in place throughout the grooming gangs scandal, it would have been far harder for the gangs to have concealed their crimes and it would have almost certainly led to some of the abuse being detected earlier. It also would likely have led to some incredibly vulnerable girls receiving vital emotional support.

There are many different angles to the recent grooming gangs coverage, issues especially to do with integration and the spinelessness of many of those in positions of power. It is right that we debate the steps we should take as a country to ensure that such a scandal is never allowed to happen again and that where it is still happening, it is robustly snuffed out. Part of this process must involve having another look at our abortion laws regarding parental notification. It is a moral imperative that these laws are designed in a way that protects the most vulnerable rather than aiding the perpetrators of grotesque sexual violence, as the current law has almost certainly done.

This is not an issue about abortion per se. It is an issue about safeguarding the most vulnerable and the law in this area must be governed by this concern rather than ideology.

I am pleased that Carla Lockhart MP has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting requesting that the law be changed. He should reflect seriously upon Lockhart’s arguments. Changing the law in this area would not only be the right thing to do, but it would also be a popular move, with polling showing that 70 per cent of parents believe that parental consent should be a legal requirement. A public outcry after a Coronation Street storyline may not have been enough to secure a law change, but the grooming gangs’ scandal certainly ought to be.