Abortion
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review the 24-week abortion gestational limit in light of recent scientific evidence on foetal pain and advances in neonatal care.
Answered by Karin Smyth
There are no plans for the Government to review the gestational limits of abortion. It is for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion, including gestational time limits.
When the time limit was last reduced in 1990, there was a clear consensus from the medical profession that the age of viability had reduced from 28 weeks to 24 weeks gestation. There is currently no clear medical consensus that the age of viability has reduced below 24 weeks.
The Government does not formulate policy on fetal sentience and fetal pain. The review and determination of fetal sentience and its implications for abortion and clinical practice is reached through professional medical consensus and clinical guidance.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has carried out a comprehensive review into fetal awareness evidence. Published in December 2022, the review concluded that the evidence to date indicates that the possibility of pain perception before 28 weeks of gestation is unlikely.
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