Parliament was gripped in three hours of passionate debate between supporters arguing in favour of a women’s right to choose and opponents who defended the right of a foetus to live.
Health minister Dawn Primarolo argued in favour of the status quo, telling Parliament, "While there have been medical advances in caring for premature babies, only a small number born after 24 weeks gestation can survive.”
Conservative MP and former nurse Nadine Dorries called for a 20-week limit, saying that it was morally wrong for babies to be terminated at 24 weeks when some babies were surviving birth at this stage in the pregnancy.
"I think there comes a point when it has to be said this baby has a right to life also," she told Parliament.
Outside Parliament, Christians and pro-life campaigners called for the limit to be lowered, whist women’s rights campaigners protested for the 24-week limit to remain.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, joined the protest.
“Whether or not you are a Christian, a child can survive at 22 weeks. How can we live in a civilised society and continue to abort up to 24 weeks when we know that babies are viable before that?” she said.
“It’s not just about the life in the womb, it’s about the women, the women who do not speak, who hold a secret and very often cannot speak about what it is that they have done.“We need to blast open that veil and we need to help women talk about it and begin to see that there are alternative solutions in an unplanned pregnancy to abortion.”
Ms Williams said that society had to do more to promote ethical alternatives to abortion, such as adoption, and provide the support that would help women to keep their child.
“We need a complete transformation of society for life, for goodness, for truth,” she said.
Ms Williams urged Christians to continue campaigning for life, and called on church leaders to speak out on the issue.
“The Parliament has not listened, the MPs have not listened, and we need to begin to make them listen,” she said.
