Survey backs abortion limit cut

Only 27% said the current limit for abortion should be kept

A survey of the UK public's attitudes to current ethical and moral issues has indicated there is support for reducing the legal time limit for abortions.

Of the 2,432 adults surveyed, 58% said abortions should not take place after the 20th week of pregnancy and 19% said the limit should be 12 weeks.

Only 27% thought the current 24-week limit for termination should be kept.

The YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph also found 87% backed assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

A total of 9% of those questioned said the legal time limit for abortions should be less than 12 weeks; 6% said abortions should not be legal at all, while 2% said terminations should be allowed up to birth.

The survey also suggested women were more likely to support tighter controls on abortion, with one in three supporting a limit of under 12 weeks.

Legal defence

The Abortion Act 1967 governs abortions in England, Scotland and Wales.

Technically the law does not legalise abortions, but rather provided a legal defence for those carrying them out.

According to the latest available data, more than 180,000 women in England and Wales had terminations in 2003, and a further 9,100 were carried out on non-residents. Less than 2% of those were performed between 20 and 24 weeks.

In total, there were 621,469 live births in the UK in 2003.

Proposed federal legislation in the US will require doctors to tell women having an abortion from the 20th week of pregnancy that the foetus felt pain.

But a recent review by a University of California team in the in the Journal of the American Medical Association said foetuses can probably only do that at 29 to 30 weeks gestation.

Ill-informed

The YouGov survey found there was strong support for assisted suicide to be made legal.

A total of 87% felt people who were terminally ill should, if they wish, be able to ask for medical assistance to help them die.

And 67% thought people should be allowed to assist the suicides of close relatives without fear of prosecution.

Public views on cloning and stem cell research were less clear - 60% of those surveyed said they did not fell well enough informed to make judgements.

The survey also found:

48% said abortion should not be free on demand on the NHS.

79% said it was acceptable to use stem cells to treat life-threatening or serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease and arthritis.

30% said they would be happy to allow cloning to help infertile couples but 60% were opposed to cloning human beings.

43% said doctors should only be allowed to modify babies' genetic make-up only to prevent the child suffering from serious genetic disorders.

77% said parents should not be allowed to select the sex of their own children.

68% said it was acceptable to use 'spare' embryos left over from fertility treatment for medical research.

Nuala Scarisbrick, of the charity Life, said: "Of course we would welcome any measure which reduced the amount of killing of unborn children which is going on around us.

"But let's be quite clear about what the abortionists are after.

"In return for a token reduction in the upper age-limit (which would probably be so shot through with exceptions as to be of little effect) they want the existing law to be changed to allow complete freedom of supply up to 10 or 12 weeks."