Following on from the blog post on hybrid embryo’s another free vote is taking place in the British parliament but this time it is about whether to reduce the time limit on abortions in the UK. The current limit is 24 weeks into pregnancy.

MPs will be voting to either leave the limit as it is or, as some expect, bring the limit down to 22 weeks. This is seen as a compromise against the 20 week limit that some want. But others are wanting an even lower limit, much lower, at 12 weeks.

I have to throw my hat in the argument at this point and say that I am for the 12 week limit but still am for choice. I do not think that abortions should be banned outright. The health risks with that were proven time and again before abortion was legalised.

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who put forward the amendment to change the abortion laws, said she believed the right of a woman to choose had its limits.

She said: “If a baby feels pain as part of a barbaric abortion process – which is what happens post-20 weeks – and if we know that baby could live if it was allowed to be born, then there comes the point when that baby has rights which are of equal parity to the mother’s.”

Does she have a legitimate argument? In my eyes yes she does. This is why I would prefer the 12 week limit. Of course you must take into account that there would be legal abortions at a later time due to the health of the mother.

Yet we do have to take into account the plea of the possible father in these matters – one thing that is being debated in parliament:

They are currently debating a plan to say IVF clinics should need evidence of “supportive parenting”, rather than focusing on the need for a father.

This obviously opens IVF treatment to same sex couples who want a child and are finding it difficult to adopt a child.

You can read more of Will Rhodes at The Will Rhodes Portmanteau

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