Abortion reform call as more babies born at 23 weeks survive

MEDICAL advances mean significant numbers of premature babies are surviving being born at 23 weeks – a time when they could still legally be aborted.

Improvements in specialist neonatal care are likely to reopen the debate over the abortion limit.

Pro-life groups have long argued that no healthy baby should be aborted while they have a chance of life.

Current laws allow babies to be aborted at up to 24 weeks.

Some who defend the current threshold argue that the survival rate remains poor if a baby was born at that point.

A commonly cited study, based on evidence gathered in 2006, suggested that just 19 per cent of babies born at 23 weeks survived.

But new research shows that many British specialist neo-natal units have vastly improved on those survival rates, and some even see the majority of babies born at 23 weeks surviving.

Data from 25 hospitals over the past four years shows that 120 babies born at 23 weeks survived.

The figures, obtained via Freedom of

‘Advances in pre-natal care’

Information laws by the Sunday Times, show that at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, six of eight babies born at 23 weeks last year survived.

Six of seven babies born at 23 weeks at University College London Hospitals last year lived. All five born at that point at North Bristol NHS Trust last year also survived.

The national rate of survival is likely to be far lower, especially at smaller hospitals without readily-available specialist care, but the figures demonstrate that if given the best care, babies are frequently surviving very premature births.

Around 560 babies are aborted at 23 weeks’ gestation every year.

Dr Ngozi Edi- Osagie, clinical director of neo-natal services at Central Manchester University Hospitals, said: ‘It is a concentration of expertise, both in medical and nursing, that contribute to making a difference in survival at this very low gestation.’

The advance will trigger a renewed debate over abortion rules. Pro-life groups have long argued that a foetus’s development is very advanced by 23 weeks and aborting a baby at that point is wrong. Many have called for the limit to be reduced to as little as 12 weeks.

Fiona Bruce, Tory MP and member of the all-party parliamentary pro-life group, said: ‘I do not understand why there is not more outcry about the fact that we allow viable babies to be aborted. The new figures support what we have known for a while: that advances in pre-natal care make a mockery of our 24week abortion limit.’

However, MPs have so far shown little appetite to change the rules. They were given a series of free votes on the issue in 2008, with new suggested limits ranging from 12 to 22 weeks.

The proposal for a 20-week limit was defeated by 332 votes to 190. The closest vote, on a 22-week limit, was defeated by 304 to 233. It was the first major challenge to Britain’s abortion laws since 1990, when the legal limit was lowered from 28 to 24 weeks.

David Cameron, then Leader of the Opposition, voted in favour of the reduced limit at 22 and 20 weeks. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg voted to leave the limit. A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Parliamentary practice is that any proposals to change abortion laws come from backbench members and that decisions are made on the basis of free votes.’