Make access to abortion easier: MPs

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The Science and Technology Committee, which has been investigating the issue, found no scientific justification for lowering the current 24-week legal limit.

It said the current requirement for two doctors to sign forms before an abortion could go ahead should be removed to stop delays for women seeking the procedure.

And it said nurses and midwives with suitable training and professional guidance should not be prevented from carrying out all stages of early medical abortions (involving the use of drugs) and early surgical abortions.

The committee's report found no evidence that this move would compromise patient safety or quality of care.

In addition, the committee report argued, there was no reason why women should not be able to take the second stage of an early medical abortion at home.

Committee chairman Phil Willis said: "Abortion is a complex issue. Legislative decisions are informed by ethical, moral, religious and political views, case law, scientific and medical evidence. We have focused on the science, and have done so rigorously.

"In our inquiry we have attempted to sift the evidence on scientific and medical developments since the last amendment of the law in 1990 and since the 1967 Act. We urge all MPs and the public to study the evidence we have taken and the conclusions we have reached."

Pro-life groups condemned the study, saying the committee had "wilfully ignored" evidence on survival rates for babies born around 23 or 24 weeks.

Labour MP Jim Dobbin, chairman of the all-party Pro-Life group, said it "deplored" the way the committee had rejected key findings.