On Tuesday night a vote in the House of Commons saw the pro-lifers defeated and the 24-week rule remain.

Now, don't get me wrong, I completely respect a woman's right to choose to have an abortion – I can only imagine what a hard decision this must be for anyone and do not feel it is right for any of us to sit in judgement, but what I do find difficult is how someone can abort a healthy baby at 21, 22, 23 or even 24 weeks.

Surely if you have an unwanted pregnancy you know straight away, not this far down the line?

I think the worst thing about all this is that while doctors are aborting 23-week-old babies (and in my opinion they are babies – they are fully formed and even have eyelashes and finger- nails), their colleagues elsewhere in the hospital are trying to save others the same age born prematurely.

I know everyone says there is no medical evidence to suggest that babies born at 24 weeks stand a better chance of surviving today then they did, say 10 or even 20 years ago, but we know they can and do survive at this age – just go and visit Peterborough District Hospital's Special Care Baby Unit.

Earlier this week I was listening to an inter- view on Radio 4 when a woman, who had aborted her baby at 23 weeks, was arguing that the 24 week rule should remain. She had to make the heart-breaking decision to have an abortion after a 20-week scan found there were serious abnormalities with the foetus, which meant the baby was unlikely to survive after it was born.

She was arguing if the law was changed people like her would not be able to have an abortion, this made sense to me until the interviewer revealed that there was a clause in the new bill which said if a baby was seriously ill it could still be aborted after the 20 weeks.)

So from this I can see no reason whatsoever why a woman needs the right to abort a healthy foetus after 22 weeks, can you?

I think what upsets me most about this issue is that I know of at least three couples who have been trying to conceive for the last few years (one couple for nearly seven) and they have not been successful.

Then there are other people who seem to be able to get pregnant at the drop of a hat who abort babies that could be adopted by loving couples desperate for a child.

I was also horrified to read an article in a national newspaper which unearthed Department of Health statistics detailing 65 women who had admitted to having SIX abortions by the age of 30, and 50 who had had EIGHT abortions or more. Now, one is unfortunate, two terrible, but eight is disgusting. I am just so shocked by this. I welcome our readers thoughts.