As announced by the British press, the eagerly awaited meeting between Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Primate of England and Wales and leader of five million Catholics, and the Minister of Health in the Blair Government, Patricia Hewitt, took place on 21 June. The main object of the cardinal’s visit was the request to the Minister to lower the limit of 24 weeks as the threshold within which it is possible to carry out an abortion in the UK. However, a spokesman of the Ministry of Health declared that no change of the law is being planned for the time being. For his part, the cardinal seconded the request of the majority of British women who in a survey conducted a few months ago declared their wish for the law on abortion to be tightened up and made more restrictive. According to the survey, conducted by the Sunday paper “The Observer”, 47% of women want a reduction in the number of weeks during which abortion is permitted, another 10% are contrary to abortion in any circumstance, while 2% are in favour of the threshold being even further raised. The new campaign for the reform of the law on abortion is also motivated by the progress of medicine which now enables very premature babies to survive in incubators.
