Britain's Parliament Tempted by Abortion Lobby's Trojan Horse.

John Smeaton, national director of Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), warns of a trap.

In late June Lord (David) Steel, the pioneer of Britain's 1967 Abortion Act, called for a re-think of abortion law, ostensibly to ban abortions performed on social grounds after 12 weeks of pregnancy. His comments have been seized upon by the media, already exercised by the broadcast two weeks before of new 3-D ultrasound pictures of the unborn. This has started a push for a bill to amend the law.

However, the pro-life movement has been led into this trap before. Some NRLC supporters may recall that the revision of abortion law sparked by David Alton's Abortion (Amendment) Bill of 1988 backfired. Two years later the Government exploited the proposal to legalise abortion up to birth.

If one looks more closely at Lord Steel's comments, one can spot another such attempt by the pro-abortion lobby to dupe pro-lifers into welcoming a Trojan horse into Parliament.

"I am certainly increasingly drawn to the continental experience of making early abortions (up to three months) easier - - and later ones more difficult, including bringing down the upper limit to 22 weeks" (The Guardian, July 6). "If it's simply the decision of the mother then the limit should be 12 weeks" (BBC, July 4).

But Lord Steel is actually calling for a liberalization of abortion law. Under the media cover given to him through superficial reportage of his misleading comments, he is explicitly calling for a right to abortion on demand before 12 weeks.

Currently, there is no "right" to abortion under British law. Abortion is a criminal offence unless the conditions of the Abortion Act which permit exceptions are met. The "letter" of the Abortion Act only allows abortion for health reasons, albeit in general terms which are routinely flouted.