Futher on HFEA
By Louise Livesey | 15 May 2008, 13:36
Further to this there are a number of amendments to the Act being proposed lowering the time limit for terminations (with hat-tip to Left Women’s Network. These are (Proposer: Amendment):
Edward Leigh MP ‘In section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 (c.87) (medical termination of Pregnancy), for “twenty-fourth week” substitute “twelfth week’.
Edward Leigh MP (again) ‘In section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 (c.87) (medical termination of Pregnancy), for “twenty-fourth week” substitute “fourteenth week.’
Mark Pritchard, Nicolas Winterton, David Drew, Desmond Swayne, Keith Vaz, David Taylor, Nadine Dorries, Julian Brazier, Ann Winterton, Tim Farron, Edward Leigh, Damian Green, Jim Dobbin, Geraldine Smith, Ann Widdecombe and Angela Watkinson
‘In section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 (c.87) (medical termination of Pregnancy), for “twenty-fourth week” substitute “Sixteenth week’
Claire Curtis-Thomas ‘In section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 (c.87) (medical termination of Pregnancy), for “twenty-fourth week” substitute “Eighteenth week’
Nadine Dorries ‘In section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967 (c.87) (medical termination of Pregnancy), for “twenty-fourth week” substitute “twentieth week’
There are also amendments making the abortion approval process longer like compulsory counselling.
Act Now! Go to Abortion Rights to find out how.
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Feeds
Anna said:
Twelfth week? Ridiculous beyond belief.
Posted on 15 May 2008 at 2:04 PM
lucy said:
Thanks for reminding me!
I've an appointment with my MP tomorrow!
Posted on 15 May 2008 at 2:33 PM
Sarah said:
I wrote to my MP the last time the 'compulsory counselling' was proposed (also by Nadine Dorries, I think) to say it was a ridiculous idea, though I would hope anyone with a shred of intelligence could see that anyway.
Of course there will be some women who require counselling for issues relating to pregnancy and abortion - especially in the awful situation where a much-wanted pregnancy has to be terminated due to a severe problem with the fetus, or health problems. But our mental health services are over-stretched enough already without wasting resources on forced counselling for women who neither need nor want it, how could we justify increasing waiting lists and reducing resources for people with real mental health issues who actually do need counselling, just to make a political point? Anyone who supports such a thing should be ashamed of themselves.
Or maybe the point is that women would have to wait so long for their counselling appointment that - oops - it would be past the legal time limit for them to have the abortion anyway.
Posted on 15 May 2008 at 3:53 PM
Marina said:
This year Russian government reduced it to 12 weeks and made meeting with social worker obligatory before abortion (which is still less than meeting 2 doctors first, plus there is no waiting time in Russia yet for abortions) in order to force women have more children to solve the demographic problem. They hope to achieve additional million babies a year by introducing new rules. If half of them will be males it will almost meet the target for amount of people needed for unpaid service in army.
Posted on 16 May 2008 at 1:14 AM
Becky said:
Edward Leigh is my MP in my home town and I always feel part rightous anger and part shame at his ridiculous stance on this. Given that I am actually one of his constituents (...not sure of spelling it though!) now I'm living back home I should get something together to show how bloody far he is from representing my (and,I'm pretty sure a huge amount of local's) views!
Posted on 18 May 2008 at 9:14 PM