More than 700 medical professionals have called on MPs to lower the upper time limits for abortions by two weeks.
They want politicians to back an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill, in what would be the biggest change to abortion law for a generation, when the legislation arrives in the House of Commons for its Report Stage later this month.
In a letter to all 650 MPs, the medical professionals have urged MPs to vote in support of the amendment by Caroline Ansell, the Conservative MP for Eastbourne, to cut the upper time limit from 24 to 22 weeks.
Politicians seeking the reduction argue that the 24-week limit is now beyond the point when many babies survive, and double that of the most common time limit among European countries.
Originally set at 28 weeks, the abortion limit was lowered in 1990 to 24 weeks’ gestation following improvements in survival rates.
Research published in November 2023 by academics at the University of Leicester and Imperial College London indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 and 23 weeks gestation can now survive outside the womb.
A total of 261 babies in the UK were born at 22 and 23 weeks in 2020 and 2021 and were later discharged from hospital.
A reduction would also bring the UK closer in line with the majority of other European countries which do not permit abortion beyond 12 weeks.
Among the signatories of the letter to MPs is John Wyatt, Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics, Ethics and Perinatology at University College London.
He said: “I have first-hand experience that on the one hand we are able to keep babies alive from 22 to 23 weeks gestation and many of them survive and live normal and healthy lives, yet at the same time the current abortion act allows abortion to be carried out effectively at maternal request at 24 weeks gestation.”
Catherine Robinson of Right to Life UK said: “The UK abortion time limit is double the average among EU countries, which is 12 weeks gestation, a point in pregnancy when the NHS website describes the unborn baby as ‘fully formed’.
“At the moment, a baby at 22 or 23 weeks gestation could be born prematurely and have a dedicated medical team provide expert care to try to save his or her life, while another baby at the same age could have their life deliberately ended by abortion in the same hospital at the same time. This is a contradiction in UK law.”
“That’s why we need to support Caroline Ansell’s amendment to lower the abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks in line with advances in medical science.” Photo: Neonatal Nurse Kirsty Hartley cares for premature baby Theo Anderson in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre at Burnley General Hospital, Burnley, England, 15 May 2020. (Photo by HANNAH MCKAY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.)
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