Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LONDON, Jun 21, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales wants the British government to lower the current 24-week time limit for abortions to 20 weeks.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor was expected to take up the issue with Britain's Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, reports Sky News.
A Health Department spokeswoman was quoted as saying: "Any change to the abortion law is subject to Parliamentary processes. We are not looking at changing it at the moment."
The Times of London reports that Murphy-O'Connor said he believes the public has undergone a "moral re-awakening" on abortion in the 16 years since Parliament last reviewed the law.
France, Germany and Italy have reduced their limits to between 12 and 13 weeks, The Times reported.
Sky News says a poll earlier this year said a majority of women in Britain want the law tightened to make it harder to terminate a pregnancy while 2 percent of respondents backed later abortions.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
