Forty years on, abortion battle rages

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Pro-choice campaigners mark 40 years of legal abortion in Britain next week, but say their hard-won right is under pressure from pro-life activists trying to lower the 24-week limit for the termination of pregnancy.

Passionate debate over the ethics of aborting healthy babies preceded the Abortion Act that came into force in April 1968, and the issue is still hotly contested by the two sides.

"I used to -- and still occasionally do -- get lunatic letters comparing me to Herod and Hitler," David Steel, the parliamentarian who introduced the Act, told Reuters.

Forty years after Steel saw the Act become law, parliament is again besieged by activists -- one group determined to stop what it sees as the barbaric murder of innocents, the other fiercely defending what it says is women's right to manage their own lives.

"The Abortion Act and its enactment was an historic advance for women," said Louise Hutchins, campaign director for the Abortion Rights group. "It ended the days of backstreet abortion with thousands of women being killed and many thousands more being injured and maimed for the rest of their lives.

"Not only that, it also allowed an incredible advancement in women's economic, social and educational position in society by giving them basic control over their lives."

Russia was the first country to legalise abortion in 1920, according to the World Health Organisation -- although the law was repealed in 1936 and abortion remained illegal until 1955. Iceland was the first west European country to legalise abortion, in 1935.

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