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Notices and Press Releases

Abortion Rights : Science and Technology Committee report welcomed

Abortion Rights welcomes the Science and Technology Committee report in favour of upholding the 24-week time limit for abortion, removing the need for two doctors’ signatures and allowing nurses to perform first trimester abortions.

The report echoes calls from pro-choice campaigners that the time has come to reform the 1967 Abortion Act. Its publication, ahead of parliamentary debate on the issue, clearly stamps out calls by the anti-choice lobby to reduce the time limit for abortion and impose further restrictions on women.

Later abortions are rare – less than two per cent of the total – but needed by women facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The tactic of focusing on the least common of abortion procedures is a part of the anti-choice lobby’s step-by-step approach to their ultimate goal – making all abortion illegal.

Anne Quesney, Director of Abortion Rights said:

Abortion is a complex issue, one that no woman takes lightly. The Science and Technology Committee report provides solid and rational evidence in an often-distorted and polarised discussion. But we must continue to ensure that women and their needs always remain at the centre of the abortion debate. Forty years since abortion was legalised it’s time to move forward for women - not back’.