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ITN
MPs reject abortion time-limit reduction
MPs reject abortion time-limit reduction
MPs have rejected proposals to cut the time-limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 22 weeks.In a series of votes on the issue, the closest vote was the last - to cut the limit to 22 weeks. This was defeated by 304 votes to 233, majority 71.The votes came after two highly-charged days' debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - the biggest shake-up of fertility law for nearly 20 years.Supporters of the existing law signalled their determination to fight the attempted changes, with 86 MPs signing a cross-party Commons motion stating that the current limit was "scientifically and ethically justified".Signatories included former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and former Health Secretary Frank Dobson.Earlier, on a free vote, MPs rejected a cross-party move for doctors to consider the need for a father in offering fertility treatment. Voting was 292 to 217, majority 75.Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill at present, IVF clinics would only have to take account of the need for "supportive parenting".Critics claimed the proposed change, led by Tory former leader Iain Duncan Smith with backbench Labour support, would have discriminated against lesbian and gay people.Tory former minister Edward Leigh, who led the call for a cut in the abortion time-limit to 12 weeks, said public opinion had shifted in favour of a reduction and the UK was now "out-of-step" with many other countries."We are so careful about the life of a baby when it is a wanted baby, so concerned with the mother's health," he said."But we are dismissive of the rights of an unborn child that is not a wanted child," he said."There is so much talk, quite rightly, in this House about human rights, about the rights of the vulnerable."But in my personal view there is just one overwhelming, fundamental human right - and that is the right to life."Mr Leigh said abortion "on demand" was now a reality and the UK had one of the highest rates in Europe at 200,000 a year. "In modern Britain the most dangerous place to be is in your mother's womb."Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said there was no scientific evidence to warrant a reduction in the time limit.She warned that reducing it would force a small number of women who sought late abortions to go elsewhere."Wouldn't it be appalling if we drove women back to where they were before the 1967 Act," she said.Ms Primarolo said the upper limit was set by Parliament in 1990 at 24 weeks because scientific evidence at the time was that the threshold of viability had increased.
ITN | May 21, 2008
