BMJ  2008;336:1211 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39589.537083.DB (published 21 May 2008)

News

MPs support no change in 24 week limit on abortion

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Great Britain’s abortion laws survived the first serious assault on them in almost two decades this week, when an attempt to make them more restrictive was defeated in the House of Commons.

"Pro-life" MPs proposed a series of amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to lower the 24 week deadline for abortion to 12, 16, 20, and 22 weeks, but each amendment was defeated.

The result is that women will continue to have the right to abortion up to 24 weeks’ gestation in England, Wales, and Scotland if two doctors certify that the risk to her physical or mental health, or that to her child, will be greater if she continues with the pregnancy than if she ends it. The law in Northern Ireland is different.

The existing provision, which allows abortion at any stage of gestation if two doctors agree that a woman’s health or life is . . . [Full text of this article]


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