Yesterday, Baroness O’Loan’s Abortion (Gestational Time Limit Reduction) Bill received a First Reading in the House of Lords.
There have been huge advances in medical science in the 33 years since 1990 when the abortion time limit was lowered from 28 weeks to 24 weeks.
The survival rate for extremely premature babies has doubled over the last decade alone, prompting new guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine that enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks gestation.
This leaves a real contradiction in British law: in one room of a hospital, doctors could be working to save a baby born alive at 23 weeks, whilst, in another room of that same hospital, a doctor could perform an abortion that would end the life of a baby at the same age.
Our abortion time limit of 24 weeks is also unusually high compared to the majority of European Union countries. In fact, it is double that of the most common time limit for abortion on demand or social grounds among European Union countries, which is 12 weeks gestation.
A number of MPs and Peers we have spoken to have been amazed to hear how extreme our time limit is compared to many European Union countries.
While it is rare for Lords Private Members’ Bills to become law, at a minimum, Baroness O’Loan’s Bill will ensure that the humanity of the unborn child is put firmly on the radar and debated extensively in Parliament, the media and wider society.
This will help raise the profile on this issue and build further momentum for changes to our abortion legislation that will save the lives of unborn children.
We have just published a magazine-style explainer article on our website that has much more detail on Baroness O’Loan’s Bill and why it is time to reduce the abortion time limit.
I highly recommend having a look at this explainer article – so you are up to speed on the issue and the overwhelmingly strong case for lowering our time limit.
For this article, we have used a magazine-style format.
The idea with this format is to provide a more in-depth account of an issue, which is accessible and beautifully formatted with accompanying imagery and videos that bring the issue to life, in the style that you would see in a magazine or a long-form feature piece in the weekend edition of a major newspaper such at the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph or Observer.
This format allows us to go into much more depth on an issue than we do with our shorter news pieces on the Right To Life News platform.
Once you have read the piece, if you have a moment, it would be really helpful if you could share it with friends and family so they are aware of all the key facts and figures that demonstrate why it is time to reduce the time limit.