20 Weeks
Abortion is one of those tricky issues. Women must have the right to abort. This choice is essential. Anything else would just be barbaric. But then we must also consider medical advances which allow babies to survive at far earlier stages than ever before. This is particularly pertinent to me, as I was born 10 weeks premature 23 years ago, and had I been born not very many years beforehand, I would have almost certainly died at birth. Which, rather obviously, from my viewpoint would have been rather a bad thing.
As such, we need to attempt to balance the two as best as possible. A woman’s right to choose and the ability of medical science.
As such, I agree with Dr Crippen when he says:
Dr Crippen is in favour of reducing the abortion foetal age limit from 24 to 20 weeks - save only for catastrophic foetal abnormality and genuine threat to the mother’s life. I could not contemplate facilitating an abortion at, say, 23 weeks for purely social reasons.
So why will I not be jumping on the Nadine Dorries bandwagon?
Nadine is a right-wing Conservative, a Christian, a divorcee with three children and, rather implausibly, Iain Dale’s theatre going mate. She is an ex-nurse and successful business woman. She is one of the very few MPs who openly publishes details of her parliamentary expenses on her blog and, whatever else you may say about her, you have to admire her for that. I wish she could be as honest about the abortion debate as she is about her expenses.
And there lies the problem… she will not let the truth, including the scientific truth, stand in her way.
Nadine’s bandwagon is, of course, her new “the 20 weeks campaign“, which appears to make most of its points with pictures and videos. Pictures and videos do not make a case - neither does the Q&A page, which is hardly a fountain of knowledge and information.
Whilst I support the idea reducing abortions to 20 weeks except for extreme cases, I cannot condone her campaign, especially when Dr Crippen also points out that Nadine appears to be against abortion altogether, from her past comments.
Any reduction in the abortion time period must be made alongside extra funding to ensure that all women get the opportunity to see a doctor about abortions and get them done in a very prompt manner. It should not be rushed, but it must not be delayed.
So - Yes to 20 weeks, No to Nadine Dorries’ campaign.
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