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 14 May 2008 01:15 BST

Minister firm on Abortion Act

Wednesday, 24 Oct 2007 13:09
Dawn Primarolo faced questioning from MPs on the government's abortion stance

Health In Focus 

The government has no plans to change the current legal limit for abortions, the health minister has told MPs today.

Facing intense questioning from members of the Commons science and technology committee today, Dawn Primarlo said the consensus of scientific opinion remains in support of the current 24-week limit.

Today's grilling session comes after the committee heard evidence last week from a number of interested parties, including the Royal College of Nurses, British Medical Association, Marie Stopes, Abortion Rights and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

The inquiry was set up to examine the scientific and medical evidence relating to abortions, particularly developments in understanding since the 1990s, with a view to reviewing claims that 24-week-old foetuses can feel pain.

It also follows comments by Lord Steel, who introduced the original act in 1967, suggesting that some women view abortion as a possible alternative to contraception.

"I accept that there is a mood now which is that if things go wrong you can get an abortion, and it is irresponsible really," he told the Guardian.

Speaking today, Ms Primarlo said: "The Department of Health's view and the advice to me is that - and that's why there is no proposal from the government to amend the act - that the act works as intended and doesn't require further amendment at the present time."

She added: "The medical consensus still indicates that while improvements have been made in care, at the moment that concept of viability cannot constantly be pushed back."

MPs also heard evidence about the role played by the requirement for two doctors to approve an abortion and whether it could be practical and safe for nurses or midwives to carry out abortions.

They are not considering ethical or moral issues relating to terminations.

Speaking earlier today, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said he believed public opinion about abortions was changing.

"I really do think that there's been a change, or beginning of a change, in the attitudes of the people in our society today," he told BBC Radio Five Live.

"They've seen for instance, sometimes on television or in other ways, the child in the womb only 12 weeks old.

"It may take years to change the law, but step by step I think people's attitudes will change and eventually the law will change."

According to the latest official figures, four per cent more terminations were carried out in England and Wales last year than 12 months earlier - going up to 194,000.

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