British Parliament Cmte Report Says to Keep Abortions at 24 Weeks 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 31, 2007
London, England (LifeNews.com) — The British Parliament’s science and technology committee has released its report recommending to the full parliament what changes, if any should be made in the nation’s 40 year-old abortion law. The committee said the 24 week limit for abortions should not be reduced and endorsed expanding abortions further.
The committee backed a proposal by pro-abortion groups to remove the requirement that two physicians sign off on an abortion beforehand, saying it should be scaled back to one.
The committee also concluded there was no medical evidence to suggest the 24-week abortion limit should be reduced.
Further upsetting pro-life advocates, the report promotes abortion further by saying that nurses should be allowed to do abortions and that women should be allowed to take the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug at home.
Conservative MP Bob Spink criticized the report, calling it "shameful" for its promotion of abortion. He released a dissenting report containing information from witnesses who told the panel that the abortion limit should be reduced because the point of viability has been pushed forward.
He and panel member Nadine Dorries, a former MP, said the panel’s testimony was biased and weighted towards those who favor abortion.
They said the committee reached its conclusions by relying on testimony from "less than neutral advisors."
"I just want to do what is right, for the mother, the baby, and the medics, and to ensure that science informs the debate, and is not corrupted by the pro-abortionists," he said in the London Telegraph.
"Our minority report points to the selective use of evidence and incredibly biased list of pro-abortion witnesses; 13 to five in fact," he added.
Sprink also said he would call for a law that would disallow abortions on babies with very minor disabilities that are not life-threatening.
However, leading abortion business Marie Stopes International (MSI) applauded the committee report — especially its adoption of MSI’s suggestion to scale back the two doctor abortion requirement.
MSI claimed the advice within the report would help to "reduce late abortions without making them illegal for women."
MSI chief executive Dana Hovig said it represented a "victory for science" over "ideological hokum."
"Last year about 1,100 UK women had an abortion between 22 and 24 weeks," she added about the abortion time limit. "We can only guess how many of these would have resorted to unsafe measures if safe abortion were not available to them."
Now the report has been published, it will be placed before parliament for consideration.
