British Abortion Advocates Plan October Conference to Expand Abortion Laws 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 27, 2007
London, England (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates in England are planning an international conference next month to promote expanding abortion laws there. They hope the conference will result in a new effort to end the requirement that two physicians must be required to sign off on abortions.
They also want to promote a revision to the nation’s abortion law that will allow licensed nurses or midwives to do some abortions or to give women the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug.
Marie Stopes International, one of the leading abortion businesses based in the U.K., is the lead sponsor of the Global Safe Abortion Conference that will involve 13 organizations. The forum will take place next month — just days before the anniversary of 40 years of legalized abortion in Britain.
The pro-abortion groups view the Human Tissues and Embryos Bill, which primarily addresses bioethics issues, as a vehicle to expand legalized abortion.
Tony Kerridge, a representative of the abortion business, told the London Guardian newspaper that the desired changes in the law "are what we feel is a minimal requirement to modernize the law and bring it into the 21st century."
The pro-abortion groups could find either support or opposition from the British Medical Association.
At its June conference, the doctors group said that the change to requiring one physicians signature for an abortion would only be acceptable in the first-trimester. That could lead to a unified effort to push the single signature in the early parts of pregnancy or a battle over late-term abortions.
Josephine Quintavalle of Alive and Kicking, a group of pro-life organizations, said they would oppose any effort to expand abortions in England.
She told the London newspaper that the new effort by abortion supporters is an acknowledgment that pro-life advocates are winning the debate — especially on limiting abortions later in pregnancy.
"They are at last realizing that contrary to the position they are taking, the country is much more favorable to our position, which is to reduce the number of abortions," she said.
"People are horrified when they hear how the figures continue to rise," she concluded.
