A petition of more than 2,700 signatures supporting abortion law reform has been handed over to Chief Minister Howard Quayle by pro-choice campaign group CALM.

The Campaign for Abortion Law Modernisation has collected 2,795 signatures to ask Tynwald to reform legislation to ’give women a genuine choice’.

CALM Spokesman Stephanie Kelsey said the chief minister had been happy to receive the petition.

She added: ’Howard Quayle said, if he was a betting man, he would expect this legislation to go through.’

Ramsey MHK Dr Alex Allinson, who made abortion law reform a key part of his manifesto pledge, is working on a final draft of Bill to put before the House of Keys for consideration. It follows a consultation on his proposals.

In a letter accompanying its petition, CALM says: ’Tynwald now has the opportunity to show its neighbours and the rest of the world that women can be trusted to make decisions regarding their own reproductive healthcare, and to pass a new law which will make safe and legal abortions available to the women of the Isle of Man.’

In August, Dr Allinson published a first draft of his Abortion Reform Bill and it was followed by a six-week consultation.

The Bill aims to allow early access to counselling and abortion services.

Up to 14 weeks, abortion would be available on request. For 15 to 24 weeks, it would be available if a woman’s life or health was in danger, or if the developing foetus had a fatal abnormality or a serious developmental defect.

After 24 weeks, termination would be allowed only if a termination was necessary to prevent ’grave permanent injury’ to the pregnant woman or the continued pregnancy posed a greater threat to her life than if the pregnancy was terminated; or if there was a ’substantial risk’ of the baby dying after birth or suffering a serious handicap.

in good faith

Any termination after 14 weeks would require a medical practitioner ’in good faith’ to verify the risk.

The consultation showed overwhelming support for reform.

There were 3,644 submissions received - the largest response to a public consultation in recent years.

Some 77.7% of responses were from women, and 21.8% from men.

Of those, 87% (3,171 respondents) agreed a woman should have the choice to request an abortion up to 14 weeks.

A total of 84.7% agreed a rape victim should be able to request an abortion without reporting the offence.

Some 81.5% agreed that a woman should be able to request a termination at any stage of the pregnancy, including after 24 weeks, if the foetus had a fatal abnormality.

A total of 73.2% thought that there were circumstances in which an abortion should be provided after the 24th week.

Pro-life campaigners, however, are hoping to stop the bill.

Humanity and Equality in Abortion Reform (HEAR) described the bill in its initial format as ’extremely regressive legislation’, with a ’number of seriously flawed provisions that would make Manx abortion law significantly more inhumane’.