Tory MP calls for a review of abortion laws

Two abortion stories hit the headlines over the weekend.  One concerned the rapid growth in so-called "bedroom abortions" via the controversial 'EMA' abortion pill.   The pill is controversial because of worries over its safety.  The other story, broken in The Sunday Times,  concerned the revelation that "more than 20 babies have been aborted in advanced pregnancy because scans showed that they had club feet."

There have been calls for the police to investigate termination of unborn babies with webbed fingers or club feet.  The 1967 Abortion Act allowed for abortion when there was a risk of "severe" physical or mental handicap but these 'defects' can be easily corrected by splints, plaster casts, minor surgery or physiotherapy.

Conservative MP Bob Spink has told today's Daily Mail that Britain's 40-year-old abortion laws need to be reviewed:

"It is nearly 40 years since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed and science has made tremendous advances.  Public opinion has changed, partly as a result of huge improvements in the imaging of the unborn child.  Parliament is not reluctant to grapple with the issue.  A Communications Research survey showed that nine in 10 MPs want the abortion law to be reviewed continuously in the light of advances in medical science... There is a political will to act - in the last election, all three party leaders called for a review of the timing of abortion - so why has action not been taken?"

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Related link: Making abortion rare.

Comments

[Richard]

"I'd also like to show appreciation for AlexW's succinct warning against "moral majoritarianism"."

Even if all they want is a 2 week reduction in term limits based on recent medical research? Nobody's calling for a total ban.

[Richard]

I think I also ought to point out that restrictions on abortion tend to get higher support from women than men.

[Richard]

Sorry for making a third post in a row but I'd be interested to know people's opinions on those women who abort their children because they are slightly handicapped? Isn't there something frighteningly eugenic about that?

[Annabel Herriott]

AH Matlock.
Of course men have a place in this debate. My point was, to hold the mirror of history to the proceedings.
Nowadays, men are allowed to abandon their impregnated girlfriend, neccessitating either an abortion, or a hard life of single motherhood.
By the mere fact of being male, and shotgun weddings no more, mostly, a man cannot appreciate the devastation. They can,and do, walk away. They do not grow "A bump". They do not have to arrange childcare, hang on to a job, survive with no sleep.....shall I go on, or do you understand a girls dilemma now?

[Peter]

I'd also like to show appreciation for AlexW's succinct warning against "moral majoritarianism"

Actually, if it is subtle and realistic enough to go with the grain of the natural good sense and lack of hysteria of the British people, so-called moral majoritarianism might be a perfect foil to deal with those who have been able to present Conservatives as caring only about making money and keeping the taxes on it low, indifferent to anything else like how people live their lives. General well being rather than just GDP and such.

Responding to every social and moral problem in Britain by upholding 'choice' and arguing for total indifference from society and authority may be the majority response from political sophisticates, but I've never got much sense that it's a popular view with ordinary voters.

[Annabel Herriott]

It is totally shallow to terminate for. say club foot. It can be corrected from birth by physio and splinting.
Hare lip is invisibly mended.
Cleft palate is closed, and speech therapy started almost at once now. Anything else I can help you with?? Oh and brittle bone disease does not affect the mind. vis Baroness...Oh dear! name gone, but you know who I mean!! and a pal of mine in the same physical condition as the good Baroness, is a working economist. OK, they need carers, but so what??

[Mike Christie]

Just for reference, according to BLISS (the premature baby charity) 50% of babies born at 25 weeks will survive. Last year 2,800 babies were born between 24 and 28 weeks, over half of them will have survived.

Maybe a trip to your local neo-natal unit might help you decide whether these are just blobs of matter to be killed at will.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Richard I think that is a much more difficult subject. While my natural reaction to a termination because of a hare-lip is distaste (we could repair hare-lips very well even in the 50's, so now it should be simple surgery.), I think it depends how 'slightly' or 'handicapped' is interpreted in each case.

On the one hand one is reminded of thre Nazis attitude to erasing less that perfect people (their type of less-than-perfect!), but on the other hand, you can damage done to the foetus these days by, say the fall-out from a nuclear power accident like Chernobyl, the what do you do? And I am not thinking of the mother, I am wondering about the ethics of inflicting life onto a badly damaged/developed foetus, because of the pain the child would have to go through.
Who are we to decide about who should go through pain or not, how do we know that the soul of the foetus, that does not arrive after a termination, doesn't 'come back' in another foetus later. We DO NOT know that and never will, this side of the divide.

[Andrew]

You can get some nice contrasts on the effectiveness of different sex education policies in the US. Basically, the Bible Belt states, where sex education is often minimal or non-existant, have the highest rates of teen pregnancy. Curiously enough, Bush won 20 of the 21 top states in this regard (as well as most of the low education achievement states, which isn't unrelated).

[A H Matlock]

Annabel Herriott - I understood the dilemma before that, dear lady. As the father of six children, I am fully aware of the stress and commitment involved in parenthood and I deprecate in the strongest possible terms any man who abrogates his responsibility to his children - born or unborn, but that is still no excuse for the termination of a human life.

[Richard]

"Basically, the Bible Belt states, where sex education is often minimal or non-existant, have the highest rates of teen pregnancy."

I expect this is less due to the lack of sex education and more to do with higher rates of poverty. I would be interested to know if the children giving birth are from families of committed Christians or merely trailer trash who have no strong religious convictions.

Nevertheless, it doesn't explain why we had fewer teen pregnancies over here before the widespread introduction of sex education.

[Richard]

By the way, we are often told as Tories to become more "in touch" with modern Britain, which in many circumstances means becoming more tolerant of alternative lifestyles. However, when it seems that a socially conservative view (such as reducing abortion term limits) is popular, we are told to be careful of upholding the majority view. Why the inconsistency?

[Mike Christie]

"Why the inconsistency"

because one involves agreeing with the liberal media consensus and the involves disagreeing with it.

[Mike Christie]

sorry.. last post should read '...the other involves...

[James Maskell]

The abortion debate as Louise rightly says, should never have a Conservative Party policy. It must be a personal choice of the MPs. Its an issue of conscience.

For what its worth, Im pro-choice. I know its not the natural Conservative position, but its the one I feel. As I say, its an issue of conscience, not party policy, like euthanasia, and no party should try to impose a particular policy on the members.

[Sean Fear]

I'd view The Handmaid's Tale in the same light as the poetry of Harold Pinter, the plays of Bertold Brecht, and the films of Ken Loach.

[Chad]

"Abortion, whether good or bad, is a matter between a woman, her body and her doctor in which she is in total control."

I agree, despite bitter experience.

We unfortunately had to face the hardest decision of our life when we were told that our unborn child "was not compatitible with life" (Trisomy 18). The NHS in Southend was a disgrace, having no information of the problem nor any support group leaving us to have to search the net (fortunately we later found the brilliant ARC who bring together parents in similar situations)

Even so, despite the medical profession telling us our child could not live, the guilt and mental scars of that decision remain today and will forever.

"It is totally shallow to terminate for.."
I agree. However much I find it abhorrent that someone would abort a child for non life-threatening reasons, it will never be an easy decision even if it it seems so at the time and it should not be one that a political party seeks to impose. It is a decision between the woman (and hopefully her supportive partner) and her doctor not the state.

The last thing we need is a Conservative Party emboldened by the polls to start moralising again.

[comstock]

The abortion debate as Louise rightly says, should never have a Conservative Party policy. It must be a personal choice of the MPs. Its an issue of conscience.

That is of course true(and also applies to Labour), but the next logical question is.....Are MPs really in a position to decide-apart from anything else they are still predominatly male, and elected (generally speaking) on party policy, rather than personal consience.

That then begs the question of a referendum, which on the surface of it seems a good idea. But do we really want the sort of pro/anti campaigns we see in the USA? IMHO it would tear the country apart. Unlike euthanasia, is there clear evidence of a public demand for change?

Which leaves me to conclude the least worst option is to leave things as they are.

[SimonNewman]

lucy74: "If abortion is once again outlawed, just as many foetuses will be aborted but at much greater risk to the mother's life."

AIR there's US data which indicates that post-legal-abortion, fertility rates fell about 1/6 as much as the number of (newly) legal abortions, indicating that in a large number of cases abortion is used as an alternative form of contraception. The fall in birth rates seemed concentrated in middle-class white women, while lower-class black women had many abortions but did not have a fall in birth rates.

[Chad]

Whilst I fully understand those who you who personally hold deep religious reasons for opposing abortion, euthansia etc, I don't believe that has any place in driving policy.

Women need support not a sermon.

[Richard]

"Unlike euthanasia, is there clear evidence of a public demand for change?"

There's majority support for a reduction in term limits but I don't think it's an issue people feel particularly strongly about,

[Patsy Sergeant]

For once Chad I entirely agree with both your most recent posts, and I am sorry for you and your wife's bad experience.

[Sally Roberts]

When it has come to voting, Abortion has always been an "issue of conscience" and therefore subject to free vote. It should remain that way and never be made party policy.

[SimonNewman]

I agree with Sally that it should be an issue of conscience.

Richard:
"Basically, the Bible Belt states, where sex education is often minimal or non-existant, have the highest rates of teen pregnancy."

I expect this is less due to the lack of sex education and more to do with higher rates of poverty. I would be interested to know if the children giving birth are from families of committed Christians or merely trailer trash who have no strong religious convictions."

My understanding of the data is that the rate of teen pregnancy has less to do with religion per se, or with poverty, than with one single overriding factor - whether a 14 year old girl is living in the same house as her biological father. If she is, she's very unlikely to become a teenage parent. If she isn't, there's a good chance she will be. No other factor is comparable, the correlation is very high. Most Bible Belt states have larger black minorities than the rest of the USA, and while American blacks are generally at least as religious as whites, most black mothers are single parents (about 2/3). Their daughters then tend to become single parents also.
While poverty correlates with being a single parent, the daughters of poor two-parent families (black or white) rarely become teenage mothers.

[Oberon Houston]

How much 'popular pressure' is there for a tightening of the law? I've got a feelong that

1. the majority of women are content with the current set-up (the woman-foetus balance).
2. This is a fight we shouldn't be consentrating on.
3. Many who are interested in voting for us, but still wary of what we will do in power may find our championing of this disconcerting.

[Phil]

Having read some more of the comments...it seems 'pro-choice' people emphasise women's rights, and 'pro-lifers' the unborn child. Perhaps we need to decide which of these is really the crucial issue.

This need not be "the Tories moralising again", but rather about sensitively responding to growing unease about abortion brought about imaging of the child in the womb, and increased knowledge of the life of the unborn child. On the latter, apparently some researchers believe that a child has some awareness even from the moment of conception. If life begins at conception, the debate about term limits is a side issue.... And again, why abortion when adoption is an alternative that saves life.