Britain is 'becoming the abortion capital of the world' claims Tory MP fighting to lower legal limit

Britain will become the "abortion capital of the world" in the next decade, according to prolife campaigners.

They say our termination rate is already higher than any other western European country.

If the current trend continues, Britain is on course to overtake the U.S. and Australia as the place where the greatest proportion of pregnancies are terminated.

Nadine Dorries MP is leading calls for a cut in the upper time limit for so-called "social" abortions from 24 weeks to 20.

She said this would stop 2,500 terminations a year taking place.

"We have reached the point where we need to pull back on abortion," she said.

"If we don't there is no question that we will overtake America in the next couple of years, making us the abortion capital of the world."

Mrs Dorries plans to table an amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in the Commons this month.

Her campaign to cut the upper limit from 24 to 20 weeks is said to have the support of 200 MPs.

However, it will only be able to overturn the law if at least 200 others abstain.

In England and Wales, there were 193,700 abortions last year - a rate of 18.3 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. In the U.S., the rate has been falling steadily for almost three decades, and it now stands at 19.4 per 1,000 women.

In France the figure is 14.5, in Germany it is 7.2 and Italy 9.1 - all lower than the UK.

The only other major Western country with a higher abortion rate than Britain is Australia - but, like the U.S., the level there is currently declining.

However, there are high rates of abortion in former Communist countries such as Ukraine.

Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said there had been an "awakening of the public conscience over abortion" in the U.S.

"By contrast in the UK we have embraced ever more tightly the same tired formula of values-free sex education, condoms and more abortion services," he added.

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"This is an "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff approach" which tries to deal with the problem without tackling its root causes.

"The UK is rapidly becoming the abortion capital of the world."

But Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said U.S. abortion rates were falling partly because they started from such a high point when the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that states could not ban terminations before 26 weeks.

"Some states have restricted abortion by introducing parental notification clauses," she said. "If you restrict abortion and deeply stigmatise it, it will be less accessible.

"The rate of abortion in Britain is what you would expect in a society with a relatively widespread use of contraception and a relatively liberal attitude to sex.

"There is a concern about rising abortion rates, but it is the wrong concern. It should be about the number of unwanted pregnancies there are."

Yesterday, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said any decisions over the upper time limit for abortion were a matter for MPs' consciences.

But he said he personally believed the original legislation on terminations had "stood the test of time".

Junior minister Ann Keen told MPs that of 435 births below 24 weeks in England and Wales in 2005, only 52 babies - just 12 per cent - survived beyond their first birthday. Many of these children will have serious disabilities.