A bill definitively stating that abortion on the grounds of the sex of the unborn child is illegal has passed the House of Commons on a cross-party vote.

According to the Daily Telegrahp, MPs voted 181 to 1 for a motion brought forward by Conservative MP Fiona Bruce in an effort to end uncertainty over whether doctors can be prosecuted for the practice. The bill will now have a second reading in January, but is unlikely to become law without getting government support and parliamentary time.

Confusion over the law was exposed last year by the decision of the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer, not to bring charges against two doctors caught on camera by a Telegraph investigation agreeing to arrange abortions of baby girls purely because of their sex.

Starmer later issued a detailed explanation pointing out that the law “does not, in terms, expressly prohibit gender-specific abortions”. He said doctors have “wide discretion” in assessing whether continuing the pregnancy could threaten the physical or mental health of the mother or her existing children.

The Department of Health issued guidelines in May saying that abortion “on the grounds of gender alone” was illegal, but the new motion’s sponsor said that further clarity was needed.

“The British Pregnancy Advisory Service which provides around 60,000 abortions a year flatly disagrees. Even today they are advising women in one of their leaflets and on their website that abortion for reasons of foetal sex is not illegal because the law is silent on the matter.

“The British Medical Association hold yet anther interpretation. They argue that having a child of a particular gender may be a legal and ethical justification for an abortion on the basis that the sex of the child may severely affect the pregnant woman’s mental health.”

Bruce said that Britain’s biggest abortion provider is failing in its duty to condemn gender-based terminations by refusing to tell pregnant women that they are illegal.

She told the Commons: “It is a shame that this clarification is needed. Successive health minsters and even the Prime Minister have been very clear they state that abortion for reasons of gender alone is illegal. The Prime Minister has described the practice as appalling but they are being ignored.”

The only MP who voted against the sex-selective abortions ban was Glenda Jackson, the former actress and Labour MP.