Pro-life call to cut abortion limit rejected
Rushda:
October 25th, 2007
Pro-lifers will be dismayed to hear that Health Minister Dawn Primarolo recently defended the current regulations that abortions are permissible up till 24 weeks, saying there is no scientific evidence to lower this upper limit. The issue has once again become a hot topic, as many are angry at how women who have been pregnant for 6 months can still be allowed to abort their babies at such a late stage.
One of the key reasons for keeping the limit as it is, according to the British Medical Association, is that the number of babies capable of surviving at 24 weeks is “extremely small.” Any change in abortion laws is most likely to consider medical advances rather than moral issues, and so there is no reason, according to the Health Minister, to lower the limit at this stage. As she explains:
“The medical consensus still indicates that whilst improvements have been made in care that at the moment that concept of viability cannot constantly be pushed back.”
And when she was criticised by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, a former nurse, for not having a fair view towards the act and being far too committed to the liberalisation of abortion, she said that the Department of Health are not supporting delayed abortions and that if they are to be done, the quicker the better. However, she maintains any bid to lower the limit, also saying:
“I am not here to discuss my personal views. I’m here as the minister to answer the questions the committee puts to me about the information the department has.”
Ms Dorries also asked the Health Minister:
“If the evidence shows that a foetus could feel pain at 20 weeks or less, would the department consider altering its guidelines or making amendments to the Act?”
However, no specific response has been given to this question except that research would still be continued. Needless to say, many people will be disappointed with what could be described as a very dogmatic stance on such a controversial issue. It certainly seems that there are very few considerations which would cause the regulations of the Act to change in the less liberal direction. In fact, recent news suggests the opposite: that MPs are planning the “most extensive liberalisation of abortion laws for 40 years” by allowing women to have abortions with one doctor’s signature rather than two and performing the second stage of the medical termination at home rather than in hospital.