Sir: Paul Johnson is too disturbed, too wrong and too
late to engage in serious discussion. What can now happen here has now been settled by Parliament for some time to come by amendments to the Abortion Act 1967, inserted in the Embryology Bill in two long and intensive debates on 24 April and 21 June.
The Commons have closely followed the lead given by the House of Lords two years ago. More than a decade of guerrilla warfare at Westminster is now over.
The Times published a concise summary prepared by Lord Brightman of the new proposals on 19 June, which Mr Johnson may not have seen before he wrote his article. What they do is to combine a lower gestational limit for abortion generally with a safety net for the mother facing a disaster in the later stages of the preg- nancy. The new laws should dispel any fears that the door is about to be opened to abortions on demand or abortions up to birth.
There are no longer any abuses in private clinics. They are strictly controlled by licence and are inspected regularly. They are forbidden to undertake any abor- tions over 24 weeks' gestational limit. All these later abortions must be undertaken in National Health Service hospitals. The numbers are small. In 1988 there were 23 abortions over 24 weeks and four over the 27th week. The numbers for 1989 will be smaller still; 90 per cent of all abortions are undertaken before the 19th week.
The number of women resident abroad coming to Britain for abortions has fallen dramatically because of the provision of facilities for abortion in all European countries with the sole exception of the Republic of Ireland. No other country bans abortion completely. Nearly 5,000 women come annually to Britain from the Repub- lic and from Northern Ireland. Even so, Britain has one of the smallest ratios of abortions in the world — much lower than in Italy, a Catholic country.
Finally, whether the media have ignored this painful and emotive subject it is difficult to say. What I do know is that it has not been neglected in the Catholic press.
Houghton of Sowerby
110 Marsham Court, Marsham Street, London SW1
'Someone's hacked into my computer.'
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