The recent vote in the House of Lords to decriminalise abortion self-performed by the woman up to birth confirms that “viability” was never really the point when it comes to abortion liberalisation. It is worth remembering that already, the law does not reflect the contemporary point of viability, while disabled babies can be aborted by doctors right up to or during birth.
If babies can, at a certain point in gestation, survive outside the womb, why may they be terminated when they might otherwise be born alive, preferably after waiting just a few more weeks? Why give birth alone to a dead baby, with all the guilt and risk that this involves, rather than delivering a live baby with full medical support?
