MPs defied calls from doctors, church leaders and public opinion - including that of Kent Online readers - when they voted against reducing the upper abortion limit from 24 weeks.

In a momentous battle in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the call to lower the existing 24 week limit to 22 weeks was defeated by 304 votes to 233. Amendments for a further cut to 20, 16 and 12 weeks were also defeated.

But in the poll we ran on this website, 70.5 per cent for people voted in favour of the reduction.

Ann Widdecombe was among the Pro Life MPs demanding a change to the law following claims that babies aborted at 24 weeks are capable of feeling pain.

"There's been a growing unease about the operation of the upper time limit," the Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald said.

"We also have to remember that there are two lives involved, not just the woman but that of the child."

During the Commons debate, Tory MP Nadine Dorries, leader of the campaign to bring the limit down, shocked the House with her account of a late abortion when she was a gynaecological nurse.

She said: "I stood with him in my arms for seven minutes while he gasped for his breath. A botched abortion, which became a live birth, became a death seven minutes later."

~ Find out how your MP voted on the House of Commons' website >>>