Over three quarters of the general public who took a position on the matter agree that it should remain the case that a woman is breaking the law if she has an abortion of a healthy baby after the current 24-week legal time limit up until birth, according to polling.
In a poll of 2,011 people from across Britain, 77% of those who took a position on the matter agreed that it should remain the case that a woman is breaking the law if she has an abortion of a healthy baby after the current 24-week legal time limit up until birth.
Less than a quarter of those who took a position on the matter believed that abortion of a healthy baby after 24 weeks gestation should be made legal.
Among adults who took a position on the matter, 71% also agreed that a custodial sentence of just over a year for a woman who illegally aborted her baby at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation was “about right” or “too short”.
The results of this polling, conducted by Whitestone Insight, indicate that there is very little public support for proposals from MPs that would remove offences that make it illegal for a woman to perform a self-abortion at any point right through to birth.
A contradiction at the heart of the UK abortion law
The polling comes at the same time as a landmark amendment tabled by a cross-party group of over 30 MPs, led by Caroline Ansell MP, that would lower the abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks in line with advances in medical science.
A 24-week abortion limit is now beyond the point when many babies survive, double that of the most common time limit among European Union countries and represents a contradiction at the heart of our abortion law.
Originally set at 28 weeks, the abortion limit was lowered in 1990 to 24 weeks gestation. Improved survival rates for extremely premature babies between 24 and 28 weeks was one of the key considerations that motivated this change.
Lowering the abortion time limit is supported by a large majority of the British public. Polling undertaken by Savanta ComRes shows that 60% of the general population and 70% of women support a reduction in the time limit to 20 weeks or below.
The Labour MP, Diana Johnson has also launched an abortion amendment that will remove offences that make it illegal for a woman to perform her own abortion at any point right through to birth. The amendment does not outline circumstances in which it would continue to be an offence for a woman to perform her own abortion – the changes to the law would apply throughout all nine months of pregnancy and would not exclude sex-selective abortions.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “The extreme change to the law proposed by Diana Johnson would remove current offences that prevent women from performing their own abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy. This would allow healthy babies to be aborted for any reason, including sex-selective purposes, right up to birth”.
“It would likely lead to a tragic increase in the number of babies’ lives being ended through late-term abortions performed at home, as well as the lives of many more women being endangered”.
“This extreme and radical abortion law has no place in the UK. This polling clearly shows that the public do not support this change to the law. We are calling on MPs to reject Johnson’s amendment”.
