Time to vote on abortion

MPs are to vote on cutting the abortion time limit on the second day of debates on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. 

On Monday night a cross-party attempt to ban hybrid human animal embryos was defeated on a free vote, by 336 to 176, the BBC reports. MPs will now debate the abortion laws and decide on changes in a free vote.

An amendment to the government’s bill has been put forward to reduce the upper time limit on abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or less.

Health Minister Dawn Primarolo insists there is no evidence requiring the abortion laws to be changed. She told BBC News:

‘There is no science that shows us that the survival rates have changed since we took the decision to have the time limit at 24 weeks.’

She also said the government wants to protect the right of women to choose.

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who put forward the amendment to change the abortion laws, said she believes the right of a woman to choose has its limits. She said:

‘If a baby feels pain as part of a barbaric abortion process - which is what happens post-20 weeks - and if we know that baby could live if it was allowed to be born, then there comes the point when that baby has rights which are of equal parity to the mother’s.’

Previous attempts to force a vote on lowering the abortion limit have been defeated, but as there is a free vote on the issue, an unknown number of MPs may choose to stay away, or abstain. That increases the chances of those campaigning to lower the limit to 20 or 22 weeks, who claim to have the backing of 200 MPs.

MPs are also set to vote later on the role of fathers in IVF. Existing legislation requires IVF clinics to consider the ‘welfare’ of any child created. That currently means considering the need for a father. However, the new bill says this should no longer be the case, saying instead there needs to be evidence of ‘supportive parenting’.

On Monday night a cross-party attempt to ban hybrid animal embryos was defeated. Roman Catholic cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy voted for a ban, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron both opposed it. And a bid to ban ‘saviour siblings’ was voted down by 342 votes to 163.

The votes followed two impassioned debates in the committee stage of the bill, aimed at updating laws from 1990 in line with scientific advances.

David Cameron, along with the prime minister, has backed the use of hybrid embryos as a means to develop treatments for cancer and conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. They also both support the creation of ‘saviour siblings’.

However, the majority of the Tory shadow cabinet, including shadow foreign secretary William Hague and shadow home secretary David Davis, backed the unsuccessful attempt to ban hybrids. Ex-minister Edward Leigh, who led the fight against the creation of hybrid ‘admixed’ embryos, said they were ‘ethically wrong and almost certainly medically useless’.

MPs to vote on abortion limit cut. BBC News, 20 May 2008

Also read:

Analysis: science alone cannot decide right or wrong in abortion debate. By Mark Henderson, Science Editor. Times Online, 20 May 2008

Q&A: Abortion law. BBC News, 20 May 2008

Embryology bill [Hybrid embryos]: How they voted. BBC News, 19 May 2008

Embryology Bill: The key points. BBC News, 9 May 2008