Calls for abortion law change rebuffed

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo rebuffed growing calls for reform of the abortion law on its 40th anniversary, saying there was no medical evidence that a reduction in term limits was possible.

The 1967 Abortion Act allows terminations to be carried out up to 24 weeks after conception.

The British Medical Association (BMA) backs the current set-up and even advocates easing restrictions on abortion in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy so that women would no longer require the signature of two doctors.

However anti-abortion campaigners argue that medical advances mean that babies have a better chance of survival at 24-weeks than in the past, and say the upper limit should now be reduced.

Primarolo told the Committee on Science and Technology, which is discussing whether this upper limit, cut from 28 weeks in 1990, is still appropriate, that survival rates for babies born before then were not improving.

She told the committee, which is examining scientific rather than ethical or moral issues, that the survival rate for babies born at 21 weeks was 0 percent. It was 1 percent for those born at 22 weeks, before rising to 11 percent for those at 23 weeks.

"The medical consensus still indicates that, whilst improvements have been made in care, at the moment that concept of viability cannot constantly be pushed back in weeks," she said.

"The Department of Health's view and the advice to me is that -- and that's why there is no proposal from the government to amend the act -- the act works as intended and doesn't require further amendment at the present time."