EPPING Forest MP Eleanor Laing says she voted to reduce the time-limit for abortions after carefully weighing up the moral and physical issues.

Proposals to lower it from 24 weeks to 20 weeks were recently rejected in the House of Commons.

Mrs Laing, who marched for the right for women to chose during when she was a student, says it is a subject she has always taken very seriously and that she is acutely aware of the strength of feeling among her constituents "on all sides of the argument".

The Conservative MP said: "I respect a woman's right to chose but that right, as with all other rights, must be exercised with responsibility. Abortion at 12 weeks is a very different moral and physical position from abortion at 24 weeks.

"I voted against reducing it to 12 weeks because I believe a woman should have the ability in the very early stages of pregnancy to make a decision not to bare a child.

"But the position changes very drastically as the pregnancy progresses.

"I therefore voted to reduce the time-limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 20 weeks."