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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| Abortion: a matter of life and early death | Abortion: a matter of life and early death |
| (8 days later) | |
| Jeremy Hunt has only been in position as health secretary for five minutes and already is repeating his private view that the legal abortion limit should be cut from 24 weeks gestation to 12, citing unspecified "evidence". | Jeremy Hunt has only been in position as health secretary for five minutes and already is repeating his private view that the legal abortion limit should be cut from 24 weeks gestation to 12, citing unspecified "evidence". |
| I am glad that David Cameron has made it clear that the government has no intention of changing the law on a subject that has in any case always been decided freely by parliament. If he is concerned at the high number of abortions, he will find that the UK figures are broadly in line with most European countries, and a good deal lower than in the US, where abortion remains a contentious political issue. | I am glad that David Cameron has made it clear that the government has no intention of changing the law on a subject that has in any case always been decided freely by parliament. If he is concerned at the high number of abortions, he will find that the UK figures are broadly in line with most European countries, and a good deal lower than in the US, where abortion remains a contentious political issue. |
| Like most people, I would like to see fewer abortions, but the correct way to tackle that is through moral and sex education and the better provision of family planning, not in making access to abortion more restrictive. | Like most people, I would like to see fewer abortions, but the correct way to tackle that is through moral and sex education and the better provision of family planning, not in making access to abortion more restrictive. |
| Hunt may be confused about the state of the law in several neighbouring countries, where abortion is legally available on request during the first trimester, and on a more restrictive basis after that. If there were to be any change to the Abortion Act 1967, it should be after rigorous impartial inquiry looking at all such options. | Hunt may be confused about the state of the law in several neighbouring countries, where abortion is legally available on request during the first trimester, and on a more restrictive basis after that. If there were to be any change to the Abortion Act 1967, it should be after rigorous impartial inquiry looking at all such options. |
| The present law is upheld by most branches of the medical profession as being easily interpreted and understood. Only yesterday, a retired medical professor from the University of Edinburgh told me at a social function in the City that he was a student the day the Abortion Act became law. His lecturer held up a copy of the act and said to the class: "This is a historic day because your generation of doctors will never have to confront the consequences of botched abortions." | The present law is upheld by most branches of the medical profession as being easily interpreted and understood. Only yesterday, a retired medical professor from the University of Edinburgh told me at a social function in the City that he was a student the day the Abortion Act became law. His lecturer held up a copy of the act and said to the class: "This is a historic day because your generation of doctors will never have to confront the consequences of botched abortions." |
| Our hospitals have since been free of wards cluttered with patients admitted for "septic or incomplete abortion" and our death statistics no longer show 30 to 50 annual fatalities from illegal abortion. | Our hospitals have since been free of wards cluttered with patients admitted for "septic or incomplete abortion" and our death statistics no longer show 30 to 50 annual fatalities from illegal abortion. |
| Hunt is entitled to his personal views, but as secretary of state for health he should not be contemplating putting back the clock for the women of this country. | Hunt is entitled to his personal views, but as secretary of state for health he should not be contemplating putting back the clock for the women of this country. |
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