UK MPs vote not to lower abortion limit

May 21, 2008 UK Members of Parliament voted against a bill that would result in the limit for abortions being brought down by four weeks, to 20 weeks. The MP who originally proposed the bill, Nadine Dorrie from the Conservative Party, commented on the result. "There comes a point when it has to be said this baby has a right to life." The vote to lower the limit to twenty weeks was defeated by 332 votes to 190.

There was also a vote on decreasing the limit to 22 weeks, with it being defeated by 304 votes supporting to 233 opposing.

The proposer of the twenty week limit, a former nurse explained to MPs her reason for supporting the lowering of the limit:

A little boy was aborted into a cardboard bed pan which was thrust into my arms.

As I stood and looked in that cardboard bed pan this little boy was gasping, through mucous and amniotic fluid for his breath and I stood with him in a sluice, in my arms in a bed pan, for seven minutes while he gasped for his breath and a botched abortion, which became a live birth, became a death seven minutes later.

And I knew at that moment, while I stood with that little boy in my arms that one day I would have the opportunity to stand and defend babies like him, because what I thought we were committing that day was murder.

Recently, a vote for decreasing the limit to 12 weeks also failed to pass through the House of Commons.