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US State, Illinois, introduces extreme abortion law permitting abortion up to birth

(Adobe Stock: ruigsantos)

In anticipation of a legal challenge to abortion law (Roe vs Wade) at a federal level – provoked by states such as Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi all introducing pro-life legislation protecting and recognising the right to life of the unborn child – states such as Illinois and Nevada are introducing radical pro-abortion legislation which appears to remove all legal protection for unborn children, and therefore permitting abortion up until the birth of the child.

If Roe vs Wade is overturned in the Supreme Court, it becomes the prerogative of individual states to make decisions about abortion law. As such, some states are passing radically pro-abortion laws whereas others are passing pro-life legislation.

Most recently, the state of Illinois has introduced legislation which makes abortion a “fundamental right”, stating that a “fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights.” The bill also rolls back some state restrictions on late-term abortions by repealing Illinois’ Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. This piece of legislation involved banning “partial birth” or D & X abortions whereby the child is killed in the process of extracting him/her from the womb.

This extreme abortion legislation which grants no legal recognition to unborn children at all, is also likely to have severe adverse consequences for medical professionals who, for reasons of conscience, refuse to be involved in the abortion procedure.

This radical legislation and similar legislation in New York, supported in principle by British abortion lobby groups such as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which allows abortion up until birth, is endorsed by only 1% of people in Britain. This is compared to 70% of women who want to see the abortion limit reduced to 20 weeks or below.

“This bill remains the most radically pro-abortion measure of its kind and would make Illinois an abortion destination for the country,” said Peter Breen, a former Illinois state legislator.

Dear reader,

You may be surprised to learn that our 24-week abortion time limit is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit for abortion on demand or on broad social grounds is 12 weeks gestation.

The latest guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks. The latest research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 weeks gestation can survive outside the womb, and this number increases with proactive perinatal care.

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.

The majority of the British population support reducing the time limit. Polling has shown that 70% of British women favour a reduction in the time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks or below.

Please click the button below to sign the petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to do everything in his power to reduce the abortion time limit.