Architect of Britain's abortion law says procedure is too common

The architect of the law governing abortions in Britain said Wednesday that the procedure was too common and that some women were using it as a form of birth control.

Lord David Steel, who introduced the 1967 Abortion Act that provided a legal defense to doctors performing the procedure, said that while he was proud of his achievement, too many women were terminating their pregnancies for the wrong reasons.

"Everybody can agree that there are too many abortions," he said in a speech to the Global Safe Abortion Conference in London, a copy of which was posted to his Web site.

"I would like to see more research as to why women present for abortion. I suspect that a fair percentage would be found to have used failed contraceptive measures or none at all.

"Abortion should not be regarded as long-stop (backup) contraception, and as a society we need to address these issues, as well as the questions of sexual ethics and sex education," said Steel, who as a young lawmaker introduced the bill that became the 1967 Abortion Act.

The number of legal abortions in England and Wales has been on the rise since the 1970s and the number of terminations topped 200,000 for the first time last year, according to government statistics.

Steel's comments come as Britain weighs the consequences of 40 years of legal access to abortion. Under current rules, women can obtain abortions before their 24th week of pregnancy if they obtain the approval of two doctors, or only one in the case of emergencies. After 24 weeks, abortions are only allowed if there is a grave risk to the mother's health or evidence of severe fetal abnormality.

The British public is broadly supportive of abortion rights, and anti-abortion groups have tended to keep their ambitions modest. In an open letter to the British public published Monday, the Roman Catholic cardinals in England, Wales and Scotland urged Britons to "work and vote for achievable incremental improvement to what is an unjust law."

Abortion rights organizations, meanwhile, have argued for wider access to the procedure. The Voice for Choice consortium, which represents some 13 advocacy groups, on Wednesday announced a push to scrap the requirement for two doctors' authorization and allow nurses to perform abortions in early stages of pregnancy.

Steel said there was a strong argument for making it easier for women to get early abortions.

"I have always argued that, if abortion is sadly necessary, it is desirable that it should be carried out as early as possible," Lord Steel told the conference.

"Many argue that the two-doctors requirement causes undesirable delay, and, since 1967, many of our European neighbors have legislated for abortion up to the 12th and 13th week of pregnancy without such a requirement."

___

On the Net:

Global Safe Abortion: http://www.globalsafeabortion.org/