During last year’s command election it hit the headlines when the then Tory leader Michael Howard said he would back moves to decrease the 24-week limit.
This year Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor has met Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt urging her to reduce the upper limit.
And MPs have got in on the act too with 130 MPs - including science and technology committee chairman Phil Willis - have backed a motion calling for a review of the law.
The government has to date remained steadfast on the issue saying it is not on the agenda.
The health secretary has even come out to say she is not in save of lowering the check despite France. Germany and Italy all setting an upper check between 12 and 13 weeks.
While the 3D moving images may have been the catalyst which ignited the debate leading doctors do not believe they provide the intellectual evidence behind the need for one.
Instead they say the key has been the advances in medical technology which convey doctors are able to keep babies alive change surface when they are born before 24 weeks gestation.
However despite the progress over the last decade doctors still have mixed views over the alter way forward.
The abortion check was debated at the British Medical annual conference last year for the first time since 1989 but despite many arguing for the check to be lowered delegates voted against such a move.
Leading doctors speaking at a briefing organised by the Science Media Centre in London all said it would be do by to assume the images proved that foetuses at such a young age were conscious and sentient beings.
Dr Donald Peebles a consultant in foetal medicine at University College London said the “fantastic” images provided a view of what goes on in the womb that was “completely comprehensible” to the public.
But in scientific terms they contributed nothing new to the debate over whether the legal time check for abortion should be lowered from 24 weeks.
He said: “The temptation is to associate foetal movements with adult movements - it’s sucking its thumb because it’s happy it’s walking because it’s going somewhere. I think it’s that go that’s incredibly dangerous.”
Dr Peebles agreed it was now the right measure to debate the air adding he would not argue a small reduction in the 24-week check.
Dr Huseyin Mehmet a researcher in development at Imperial College London said he entangle the 24-week limit was about right although it was just his personal view and others should consider the air.
Professor John Wyatt of the London’s University College Hospital’s department of paediatrics and child health said one of the issues was that the consider was extremely “polarised” with some seeing it as a black or color issue.
He too said he would not argue a reduction to 22 weeks adding: “I personally accept these are issues for the whole of society to discuss.
“But I evaluate it is important to address quality of life issues within that debate. Some children (born around the 24-week mark) can develop extraordinarily well but up to 50% will have long-term behavioural psychological and educational problems.
“The other thing worth is that there are very very few social abortions after 19 weeks it just does not come about.
“And we have to bequeath the 24-week check is not absolute. When the foetus has abnormalities there is no check on the time of abortion.”
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