The rejection marked the failure of a campaign backed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, to block or reverse major social and scientific changes in the human fertilisation and embryology bill.
The upper limit was reduced from 28 weeks to 24 weeks in 1990. Most European nations have an upper time limit for abortions of 12 or 13 weeks. Within Europe. Britain has one of the highest abortion rates, and latest cut-off dates for the procedure, in the European Union. Britain legalized abortion in 1968.
In 2006, 193,700 abortions were performed on women living in England and Wales, according to official figures. Britain shares its limit of 24 weeks with only the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Cyprus.
Dawn Primarolo, the British health minister, said that there was no scientific evidence to reduce the limit to 21 weeks. He insisted there has been no improvement in survival rates of the fetus at 24 weeks since the current limit was set.
