Quote:
Originally Posted by DoyleTheLover
From what I've read, late term abortions could start being considered, by some, as early as 16 weeks. This is kind of my question. I think most people agree that an abortion should not be performed in the third trimester, save for the reasons you mentioned. If you noticed on the link, Germany, UK, Italy, and others only allowed abortion on demand through the first trimester.
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Just to nitpick: the UK at no point permits abortion
on demand. The law requires two doctors to agree that there is significant risk to the physical or mental health of the mother, or to the health of her other children. Interpretation of that varies depending on the doctor.
Now in reality that means that women can abort based on judgements about the impact to their mental health and this in essence becomes abortion on demand. But from a purely
legal point of view you can't just get one whenever you want. </nitpick>
There was a bit of a furore recently over the time limit. It's 26 weeks unless there are dire medical problems. Evidence of foetuses developing higher brain function earlier than the 1967 law first considered possible led to questions being asked about whether this shouldn't be put back to 24 weeks. AFAIK this wasn't ever settled on and the basics of the law remains the same.