LONDON, July 5, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British lawmaker who was instrumental in the legalization of abortion in the UK says that abortion for “social” reasons should not be allowed beyond the 12th week of gestation. Abortion is currently committed without restriction until the 24th week of pregnancy in England—Lord Steel is advocating that the UK come in line with most other European countries. He reasons that, because of new technology, diagnosis of congenital problems can be made at an earlier gestational age and the survival of infants born outside the womb is also now feasible by the age of 22 weeks. Lord Steel introduced the Abortion Bill into British Parliament in 1966, which became law in 1967.
The original Abortion Act allowed abortions until 28 weeks. In 1990, the Bill was repealed to reduce the legal age to 24 weeks, although an easing of restrictions on late abortions for reasons of fetal “abnormality” accompanied this move. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) opposes the proposal by Lord Steel. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC’s political secretary, said: “Lord Steel’s proposal is not aimed at reducing the numbers of abortions, as his call for a general ban on abortions after 12 weeks was accompanied with a promotion of abortion on demand before 12 weeks. Lord Steel is trying to lead parliamentarians into the trap of repeating the mistake of 1990, when a bill to restrict the time-limit for abortions backfired and led to the legalisation of abortion up to birth of disabled babies. Parliamentarians owe it to the smallest and vulnerable human beings not to back half-baked proposals which will lead to even more killing by abortion.”“Parliamentarians must not be deceived by such Trojan horses which hide an agenda for total deregulation of abortion.
“It is essential that legislative proposals aimed at changing the abortion law are not put to parliament in this the most anti-life parliament in history because we are certain that a majority of MPs would vote to make abortion even more widely available.
“The pro-abortion lobby are not only actively campaigning for abortion on demand but also for abortions to be performed by non-doctors, the specific targeting of nurses to become abortionists and the provision of chemical abortion in family planning clinics,” said SPUC. tv