Having a baby has changed my mind on one thing which was unexpected. Having a 24 week limit on abortion is quite a long time, I know babies who have survived earlier than this. Below 23 weeks gives a less than 50 percent chance, so setting the cut off at below this means that there is no possibility to be aborting something that if induced would survive. So a twenty week limit seems to make sense. I believe that abortion should be allowed and am certainly no a pro-lifer. By three months, people should be aware that they are pregnant, they'll have missed two periods, that gives them two months to make their decision and emotionally come to terms with it.
There are I think medical reasons why 22 weeks is suggested, from memory certain conditions can only be determined at this stage, so maybe 22 is better. I didn't think I'd be writing about this, but the 20/22 week scan is a powerful image in my mind. It will be interesting to see if this Government makes any moves toward changing the limits, certainly the Health Secretary is not keen. Some stats, cribbed from the BBC, 87 percent happen before 12 weeks, and only 1.6 percent happen after 20 weeks, which in 2004 was about 3000, but of those about 100 were at 24 weeks.
