The Guardian, Ben Quinn, Saturday 6 October 2012
 |
| Jeremy Hunt says: 'There are some issues that cut across health and morality. I think abortion is one of those issues.' Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian |
The health
secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said that he backs halving the legal time limit for
women to have abortions, from 24 weeks to 12.
The
intervention by Hunt reignited hostilities over one of the most polarising
issues in politics on the eve of the Conservative party conference.
Coming just
days after Maria Miller, the women's minister, backed calls for a reduction in the legal limit for abortions, Hunt's comments deepened fears among pro-choice
campaigners that abortion laws are set to come under renewed assault.
"There's
an incredibly difficult question about the moment we should deem life to
start," said the health secretary, who had held off on publicly stating
his current position on abortion since he was given the portfolio in last
month's reshuffle.
"I'm
not someone who thinks that abortion should be made illegal. Everyone looks at
the evidence and comes to a view about when that moment is and my own view is
that 12 weeks is the right point for it."
His
comments were described as "shocking and alarming" by Diane Abbott,
the shadow minister for public health, who added: "It does seem as if the
Tories are gearing up for another assault on women's reproductive rights.
"It's
almost like he has plucked 12 weeks as a figure out of thin air, but it's very
alarming that the secretary of state for health wants to take a position on
women's reproductive rights that is not based on medical evidence.
"We're
seeing a sustained ideological attack on the science, and the rights that
British women and families have fought for. There is no evidence to support a
reduction in the abortion time limit and this view is supported across the
medical profession.
"It's
a really frightening thing for the sorts of decisions he is going to make on
reproductive rights. The Tories seem determined to open up this front on what
the Americans call 'values'."
Hunt's
remarks caused surprise among health experts. Although 91% of abortions take
place before 12 weeks, health professionals warned that a cut-off for
terminations at that point would curtail testing for conditions such as Down's
syndrome and rush women into having abortions they might come to regret.
Dr Kate
Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists, questioned the basis for Hunt's reference to making his
decision after looking at evidence. "What evidence is he thinking of? I
can't think of anything."
She warned that,
if women were not allowed legal terminations, they would resort to buying
abortion pills over the internet and embarking on other risky courses of
action.
Hunt, who
made his comments in an interview with the Times (paywall), denied that his
stance was a consequence of his Christian belief: "I don't think the
reason I have that view is for religious reasons.
"There
are some issues that cut across health and morality, a bit like capital
punishment does for crime. There are all sorts of arguments in favour and
against in terms of deterrence and justice, but also there is a fundamental
moral issue that sits behind it. I think abortion is one of those issues."
Clare
Murphy, head of public policy for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service,
meanwhile said that the proportion of abortions taking place after 12 weeks had
remained fairly static at about 8% of all abortions.
Hunt's
intervention was welcomed by Nadine Dorries, the backbench Tory MP who last
year launched a failed parliamentary bid to strip abortion providers of their
role in providing pregnancy counselling.
She said on
Twitter that she was "delighted" with his comments and reiterated
that she would re-introduce an amendment to reduce the time lime to 20 weeks,
adding that three quarters of GPs wanted a reduction from 24.
However,
Hunt's preference for 12 weeks placed him at odds not just with Miller, who
favours 20, but also a significant number of Tory MPs and party members who are
pro-choice.
Political
commentators have questioned the wisdom of sparking a political row over such
an emotive issue as the party heads into its conference.
Tory MP Amber Rudd announced in July that she was to launch an inquiry into unwanted
pregnancy in an attempt to prevent the issue being hijacked by anti-abortion
advocates in her own party.
A spokesman
for No 10 said that the prime minister did not share Hunt's view about a cut to
12 weeks. Cameron said during the last general election campaign that he would
support a reduction to 20 or 22 weeks.
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)
"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.
A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.
But let's
discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I
want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At
about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath.
The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained.
Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has
all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a
way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.
The quantum
instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,,
getting ready for the first breath. ..."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.