24 week abotion limit - Please reconsider your vote on the basis of best centre's results
Dear Mr Brown,
I am writing because it is reported by the Independent newspaper today that you intend to vote against the lowering of the 24 week upper limit for abortion on the basis of a press release from the BMA claiming that survival rates for babies younger than 24 weeks have not improved.
I am very concerned that MPs favouring the retention of the upper limit have also attempted to argue that there has been no improvement in the survival of babies at 22 and 23 weeks on the basis of the recently published studies from Trent and EPICURE 2.
It is however a fact that in the best neonatal units in the UK, and around the world, there has been a significant increase in survival at these levels - at University College Hospital London, whilst no babies at 22 and 23 weeks survived in the early 1980s this had risen to 5/7 (75%) and 8/17 (47%) at 22 and 23 weeks respectively in 1996 to 2000. This work was published in January 2008.
This is a reflection of the quality of care given at UCL and also of the policy of active treatment at that hospital. The reality is that there is a very real postcode lottery of neonatal care operating in Britain which many do not care to acknowledge.
I have written a longer referenced commentary on the Trent study for the all party 20 weeks campaign.
I also understand that almost all labour women MPs, with the exception of Garaldine Smith, Claire Curtis-Thomas and Ruth Kelly, are opposed to a lowering of the limit and that this may have influenced your decision.
However in a survey reported today three quarters of all British women do want a reduction in the 24 limit suggesting that Labour women MPs are not actually representative of most British women.
An upper abortion limit of 20 weeks or below would give clear blue water between the upper limit and the lowest threshold of 21-22 weeks at which some babies in the very best British units survive and would save almost 2,500 British babies at the threshold of viability each year.
Can I urge you to reconsider your decision?
Kind regards
Yours sincerely
Peter Saunders
General Secretary
Christian Medical Fellowship
6 Marshalsea Road
London SE1 1HL
020 7234 9663
