A call from Nadine Dorries for the time limit on abortions to be reduced to 20 weeks from 24 has caused fury among health care professionals.
The call by the UK Government Culture Secretary comes after the controversy in America when the US Supreme Court dismantled Roe v Wade , the ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in 1973, at the end of June, 2022.
Ms Dorries previously told Times Radio that she was pro-choice. However, she has now argued that the legal cut-off point for pregnancy terminations in the UK, which is 24 weeks, should be reduced by four. You can get more health news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
READ MORE: UK abortion law - What the law states and is it at risk in the UK?
Responding to Ms Dorries' comments, Katherine O’Brien, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK’s leading abortion provider, told The Independent : “It was absolutely extraordinary at a moment of huge political crisis, a cabinet member had chosen this as an opportunity to attack abortion rights.
“When the government collapses around her, she decides to attack abortion rights. It is also extraordinary as just last week Dominic Rabb said abortion was a settled issue in this country, yet government members in the highest offices are looking to restrict abortion.”
In The Independent’s article, Ms O’Brien claimed Ms Dorries had “a complete lack of understanding for the reasons people had abortions post-20 weeks.”
In the UK, abortions are allowed up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy. They can only be performed after 24 weeks with the permission of two doctors, if the pregnancy poses a significant risk to the woman’s life, or there are serious foetal abnormalities.
The Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990) states that an abortion is legal if it is performed by a registered medical practitioner (a doctor), and that it is authorised by two doctors, acting in good faith, on one (or more) of the following grounds (with each needing to agree that at least one and the same ground is met):
- That the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth week and that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman or any existing children of her family.
- That the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
- That the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.
- That there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.
Louise McCudden, of MSI Reproductive Choices UK, which is another leading abortion provider, said: “Criminalising women and health providers in these situations benefits no one. Rather than restricting time limits, we should be looking at ways to better protect women and girls against our outdated abortion laws.”
While Dr Pam Low, a sociologist specialising in anti-abortion activism in the UK, told The Independent that focusing the issue on the time restriction was a “step-by-step strategy to restrict abortion more generally.”
And Dani Anderson, of the Abortion Support Network, insisted that “no medical basis” exists for an amendment to the legal limit for having an abortion. “Reducing the limit will cause serious risk to women’s lives,” she added. “Second-trimester abortions are a vital part of medical care and what we need now is the decriminalisation of abortion, rather than following in America’s footsteps and restricting access even further.”
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