(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-25 15:27

"Of course I don't believe that this is at a cerebral level -- it is not an intelligent being at that time -- but its reflex patterns of behaviour are preparing it for future life."

Steel says he found the pictures arresting, but says he, like the majority of the medical and scientific community in Britain, believes the 24-week time limit should be upheld.

As a young politician Steel witnessed an abortion, knowing he would face criticism if he did not. It was "not a pleasant procedure to contemplate", he says, but "I don't think seeing it carried out altered my views at all."

"BARBARIC" OR "INFLAMMATORY"?

Opinion polls show that around three-quarters of Britons support a woman's right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and those who support a 24-week limit include the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nurses and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

As many as 200,000 women have abortions each year in Britain and the number is rising. Around 30 percent of British women will have had an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.

According to Campbell, as many as 2,300 of the 3,000 pregnancies terminated each year at between 20 and 24 weeks are normal babies likely to be born with no complications.

He says he believes strongly in a woman's right to safe and legal abortion but insists that 20 weeks -- half-way through a normal pregnancy -- allows enough time to make such a decision.

From then on "two thirds of them will be removed by gynaecological evacuation", he said. "The woman is anaesthetised, the cervix is dilated -- which is dangerous in itself -- and then the baby is absolutely dismembered, decapitated usually, as it is removed.

"These are beautiful creatures. They are rapidly developing all the skills necessary to survive. And at 20 weeks I think it's right to say we are not going to rip these babies out and dismember them. For a civilised society, I think it's extraordinary that we allow that. It's quite barbaric."

Pro-choice activists say such arguments are inflammatory and irresponsible. They say women who have abortions in later stages of a pregnancy are often in desperate circumstances, maybe having lost a partner through death or separation, or suffering from domestic violence or poverty.

"For people to use that kind of language and judge women when they are making often very difficult decisions is unhelpful," said Hutchins.

"It's inflammatory and it doesn't help women come to a considered decision about their pregnancy and the entire rest of their lives. To bring a child into the world -- with all the responsibility that that carries -- is a decision that only the woman is in the best position to take."

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