Anti-choice activists and legislators (MPs) in the UK are arguing that the legal limit for abortions should be lowered from the 24 weeks it is now to 20 weeks. Their argument?
Babies born pre-term, at 22 and 23 weeks gestational age, have a greater chance of survival these days.
There's only one problem with that argument - it's not true.
Researchers have found no change in survival rates for infants born at 22 or 23 weeks gestation over the last twelve years.
The MPs who are spearheading the movement to defend the current law had this to say:
"This peer-reviewed, published research from an entire population over
many years completely blows out of the water the spurious claim of
anti-abortionists that the threshold of foetal viability has reduced
from 24 weeks since the early 1990s," they said in a statement.
I'm all for ensuring that babies born pre-term are given the greatest chance for life we are able to give them. There is no one who wouldn't support ensuring that abortion remain an option only as long as the fetus is not viable outside the mother's body (except with sufficient allowances for the health and life of the mother). But inventing transparent "scientific" claims that are blatantly false to support your own political posturing?
