UK Health Secretary backs 12 week abortion limit

[lynn82md.livejournal.com]

Britain's new health secretary has said he favors reducing the limit for women to have abortions from 24 weeks of pregnancy to 12, reigniting a divisive political debate and sparking criticism from women's rights activists Saturday.

Jeremy Hunt, who took up the job just a few weeks ago, said that after studying unspecified evidence he believed that 12 weeks was "the right point." In an interview with the Times newspaper published Saturday, he said: "It is just my view about that incredibly difficult question about the moment that we should deem life to start."

The remarks, coming just before the annual Conservative Party conference, immediately stirred up debate and drew criticism from pro-abortion rights campaigners and some health professionals. Abortion is an increasingly sensitive political issue in Britain, though not as much so as in the U.S., where it has flared up in the presidential campaign despite the candidates' reluctance to dwell on the topic.

The prime minister's office stressed that Hunt was expressing purely personal views, and that the government has no plans to change laws on abortion. But campaigners for abortion rights reacted strongly, attacking the comments as "insulting to women."