The Bishop of Bradford, whose granddaughter was born before 24 weeks, has said MPs made a mistake by not voting to reduce the time limit a woman can have an abortion.
MPs on Tuesday threw out the first attempts for nearly 20 years to cut the 24-week time limit for abortions after a stormy debate.
Despite fierce lobbying by church leaders, they rejected an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill to cut the limit to 22 weeks by 304 votes to 233, a majority of 71.
Today Bradford’s Bishop and the Bishop of Leeds both expressed their disappointment, saying 24 weeks was too late.
What’s so magical about 24 weeks? Certainly babies can survive before 24 weeks (pictures of my daughter on the day she was born at 23 weeks – she just celebrated her 8th birthday!)
What is the difference between terminating the life of a child at 5, 24, 30 or even 80 weeks? Heck, I sometimes wish they’d increase the term limit to 780 weeks, so that I can take my 14 year old son on a little “trip” to planned parenthood…
One of the comments to the story tells it all :
In response to one person’s comment
another said :
absoutely no question about it. There is only one Christian repsonse to abortion- it is WRONG. No matter the time nor circumstance. All life is a gift from God and we are called to show love to those whom others despise and reject.
End of.
Most of Europe are bad on abortion but the British law is the worst. Among the keenest supporters of late abortion, embryo experimentation (including ‘savior siblings’ and chimeras) and lesbian IVF, are Prime Minister Brown (son of a Presbyterian minister) and gay ex-vicar Labor MP Christopher Bryant.
Corruptio optimi pessima.
I had to do a little research recently on gestational age limits for abortion in other countries. I learned that Canada is the most liberal country in the world on this topic– it has no age limits at all. I believe this means that in theory a full term baby could be lawfully aborted there.
The U.S. is the second most liberal country in the world in that respect. States are permitted under Roe v. Wade to prohibit the abortion of viable babies, but few if any states have ever used this power to establish numeric gestational age limits on abortion. Britain, with its current 24 week limit, is the most liberal in Europe. Except for some very rare exceptions, not even Holland or Sweden allow abortions at 24 weeks.
One fact rarely discussed is that, at 24 weeks, gestational age calculations by the most reliable method– crown to rump measurement by ultrasound, has a margin of error of approximately two weeks. Thus, a 24 week limit actually means that babies as far along as 26 weeks can be legally aborted.
Another fact rarely discussed is that the method used for late term abortions is quite gruesome. There has been a lot of publicity in the past few years about “partial birth” abortions, but, in my opinion, the more common method is even worse. Basically, forceps are inserted into the uterus and they grab onto an arm or a leg and rip it off the baby’s body. This process is repeated until all the body parts are extracted. OB/GYN textbooks that teach how to do late term abortions emphasize that it is important to count all the body parts at the end of the procedure to make sure that none have been left behind.
There are many good arguments against abortion from a Christian perspective. I agree with them. At times I think I know more than I want to know about these procedures. But the fact is we need to be talking about this in terms of its sheer barbarity. Infants who could live outside the womb are literally torn limb from limb. It happens every day in this country, in Canada, and in Britain.
[i]One fact rarely discussed is that, at 24 weeks, gestational age calculations by the most reliable method– crown to rump measurement by ultrasound, has a margin of error of approximately two weeks. Thus, a 24 week limit actually means that babies as far along as 26 weeks can be legally aborted. [/i]
Thank you rick for making this point. I strongly resist the use of weeks in the “pro-choice” propaganda. It is used to obscure the gruesome math. It equals 5 months. Anyone knows what that means visibly and in terms of viability. Now Rick clues us in that it could as easily be 26 weeks — five & 1/2 months!!! Horrific by any definition.
Albany– it’s even worse than you say. 26 weeks = 1/2 of 52 weeks = 6 full months.