Reducing Gestational Age Limits: Britain

A British government agency will investigate reports by physicians which claim that up to 50 babies a year are born alive following botched abortions.
           
It seems that doctors are not following the guidelines of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists which states that babies aborted after 21 weeks and six days of gestation be given an injection of potassium chloride to stop their hearts before delivery.  According to the Sunday Times, few doctors are willing or able to perform this procedure.
           
Britain has the highest gestational age limit for abortion on demand in Europe, set at 24 weeks.  Sweden limits abortion on demand to 18 weeks gestation and most other European countries have 10 or 12 week gestational age limits.
           
The number of late-term abortions performed after 18 weeks gestation in Britain has risen to 7,432, up form 5, 166 in 1994.  One of the reasons given to explain the increase is increased use of prenatal diagnosis and the subsequent abortion of babies identified with Down’s Syndrome.
           
It is not known how many of these babies survive to adulthood.  Some doctors are worried about being charged with murder for aborting viable babies who are born alive and then die as a result of lack of care.  This is fuelling the on-going movement to reduce the gestational age limits in Britain from 24 weeks to 18 weeks.  Last year, a spokesperson for Maria Stopes International, one of Britain’s leading providers of abortion, said that the 24-week gestational limit for abortion should be lowered because of the potential viability of the fetus. 
           
The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health has not yet confirmed the numbers but will issue their report sometime this year.