Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER Published: 2 May 2008
Professor backs call for right to earlier abortions
ISLINGTON resident professor Wendy Savage is helping to lead a campaign for women to have earlier abortions. It follows a new poll in which the majority (81 per cent) of respondents agreed that the law should be changed to provide women with the right to choose to have a termination within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy after consultation with a doctor. The poll was carried out as Doctors for a Woman’s Choice on Abortion (DWCA) celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act.
But Professor Savage warned that another attack on abortion law is expected in this Parliamentary session when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill returns to the Commons.
She said: “Anti-abortion MPs are expected to try to reduce the upper time limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks but the DWCA poll indicates that when given some of the reasons women may present late, a majority of the public accept the need for abortions up to 24 weeks.”